By Hummu-Kulssum Abdulai
Captured in the 2021 Auditor General’s report are over one billion financial irregularities. Majority of these were said to be from institutions in the health sector.
The Director General of the Internal Audit Agency, Dr. Eric Oduro Osae says most of these were avoidable.
To support managers of the various health centres to efficiently manage their funds, the Internal Audit Agency has inaugurated audit committees for all twenty-six health institutions in Greater Accra.
The mandate of the Audit Committees is to support the management of the health institutions to adhere to Act 921 of the Public Financial Management.
It is part of their responsibilities to help management to implement recommendations captured in audit reports as well as other monitoring reports, both internal and external.
As the tenure of the outgoing committees expires, the incoming committees will serve as control systems to check irregularities in the health centres and implement good financial management practices.
The twenty-six committees elected their chairpersons to lead in the performance of their duties. While taking the committees through the oath of office and secrecy, the Director General of the Internal Audit Agency warned that breaking the Oath of Secrecy comes with legal consequences.
The Greater Accra Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Mrs. Charity Sarpong urged the committee members to see management of the hospitals as partners and not competitors. The tenure of the committees is two years.
