Speed up appointment of boards for organizations with none – AG to Akufo-Addo

The acting Auditor General, Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, has appealed to the appointing authority to promptly constitute the board of the various organizations that do not have theirs yet.

He said the absence of the board is hampering the work of these organisations.

In his report for the year ended December 2020, he said all the audited entities presented their financial statements for audit except National Communications Authority, Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST), Institute for Scientific and Technological Information (INSTI) and Du-Bois Centre who did not submit their financial statements for audit during the time of our reviews and as such my office could not form an opinion on the financial statements of these four institutions.

However, in the case of Ghana Technical Training Centre (GTTC) his office could not express an opinion on its financial statements because they were submitted late.

“As part of the processes of good governance, I urged the appointing authorities to ensure that board of directors are constituted promptly for organisations having none. The absence of governing boards tends to delay the signing of the financial statements resulting in avoidable delays," he

“The operational results and financial positions of the Public Corporations and other Statutory Institutions during the period under review could have been healthier if there had been effective supervision of schedule officers."

“I reiterated my advice to Managements to strengthen their Internal Audit Units to ensure effective and efficient internal control systems...I also recommended that Managements should establish and strengthen the Audit Committees within the organisations in accordance with Sections 86 to 88 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) to ensure that audit recommendation are duly implemented,” he added.