GIVE GES AUDITORS ADEQUATE LOGISTICS (PAGE 28)

THE Eastern Regional Chairman of the Association of the Ghana Education Service (GES) Internal Auditors, Mr Adolph A.K. Gatorwu, has called for the allocation of adequate logistics to internal auditors of the GES to enable them to function effectively and independently.
Such support, he noted, would also help them to play a more proactive role in providing guidance and advice for the management to curb corruption, waste and fraudulent practices in the service.
At the Sixth Annual Eastern Regional Conference of the Association of the GES Internal Auditors at Koforidua last Wednesday, Mr Gatorwu said “without tools such as lap-tops and means of transportation, internal auditors cannot perform their duties to the maximum”.
“When it comes to claiming of transport and travel(T&T) and other allowances, some District Directors of Education feel reluctant to support the internal auditor, who mostly perform their duties outside their districts of residence in line with the zonal system,” he stated.
The three-day conference, on the theme “The Efficiency of the Internal Auditor in Ensuring Sound Financial Administration — The Role of Management”, will be used to deliberate on the successes, failures and challenges facing internal auditors of the GES, as well as adopt strategies on the way forward.
Mr Gatorwu said the world over, internal auditing had evolved from a policy role to an advisory one, requiring the management and the governing councils of organisations to increasingly rely on the internal audit activity to provide information to achieve their set objectives.
“Internal auditors, as experts in creating and promoting a risk management culture necessary for the effective implementation of risk management, advice management on how to institute anti-fraud measures to deter officials from fraudulent practices,” he stressed.
However, he noted that in spite of the crucial role played by internal auditors, they lacked the necessary logistics and a conducive environment to function effectively and efficiently.
Mr Gatorwu, therefore, made a passionate appeal to the Regional and District Directors of Education, as well as those in managerial levels, to ensure that internal auditors who served as technical advisors on financial issues were given the due recognition in decision-making, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation.
The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Affram Asiedu, for his part, said since the government recognised that human resource development was the greatest asset to the country’s socio-economic development, it had allocated adequate funds to the education sector.
To this end, he urged the internal auditors, as part of their responsibilities, to monitor and ensure the appropriate use of funds released for specific projects and programmes such as the GETFund, the school feeding programme, the Capitation Grant, as well as grants from donor agencies.
“If the nation must achieve a middle-income status by 2015, then the role of the internal auditor in our public and private institutions must be greatly appreciated,” Mr Affram Asiedu emphasised.
In a speech read on her behalf, the Eastern Regional Director of Education, Mrs Akosua Takyiwaa-Adu, urged internal auditors to do their work thoroughly and fearlessly to curb the abuse of public resources.