Allow internal auditors access to GIFMIS – Oduro Osae appeals to govt
The Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency (iAA), Dr Eric Oduro Osae, has called for the opening up of the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) to internal auditors to ensure effective monitoring and control in the utilisation of public funds.
According to Dr Oduro Osae, the current read-only access given to internal auditors prevents them from stopping irregular transactions carried out by various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) on the platform.
The local governance expert has since called for an alteration of the system to enable pre-audit and validate transactions done by MMDAs and MMDAs.
“The internal auditors in the country have read-only access to the GIFMIS system. So, if an irregular transaction is happening, it will be difficult for them to stop the transaction,” he complained.
He continued: “What we are calling for is a reconfiguration of the GIFMIS to allow the internal auditors to stop an irregular transaction.”
Dr Oduro Osae said this to the media on the sidelines of the 2021 Annual Internal Audit Conference held in Accra over the weekend.
GIFMIS is an Information Technology solution that integrates, collects, and organises financial information in a central database to support financial reporting, management, execution, and budget planning.
The Ministry of Finance in 2009 launched the system to improve budget comprehensiveness and transparency, consolidated cash management, monitoring and control of outstanding commitments, and payroll management.
This was to enhance revenue mobilisation and expenditure management in the public sector.
Dr Oduro Osae further indicated that funds were currently moved into suppliers’ accounts directly without preparing a payment voucher, which could have been checked by an internal auditor if they had access to the platform.
“This electronic fund transfer system is not helping, if they want to continue to move along those lines, then there is the need for them to open up the system for internal auditors to be able to monitor, so they will be able to stop the irregular transactions,” he proposed.
He also highlighted a need for the government to fast-track the process of amending the Internal Audit Agency Act to rationalise the factors and make sure that at least internal auditors were repositioned as “they are the ears and eyes of government on the ground.”
“If we approach the fight against corruption on a precautionary basis, and then we use a pre-corruption preventive approach, it will help rather than the previous approaches we have used, where we wait for people to steal the money before we chase them, that is not the best,” the chartered accountant emphasised.
iAA calls on the government to have internal auditors in Ghana’s foreign missions
On Ghana’s foreign missions not having internal auditors, the Director-General of iAA said they were engaging with the government to ensure that internal auditors are posted.
This is to ensure that the missions were provided with the required advisory and assurance services so that the country does not lose money through its foreign missions.
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He noted that the current situation of the missions having treasury officers and staff of the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, with no internal auditors, do not augur well for good public financial management.