AUDIT REPORTS COMMITTEE INAUGURATED (PAGE 24)

THE Minister of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Mr Ernest Debrah, has deplored the lukeworm attitude of some directors and heads of departments at the ministry towards audit reports.
Mr Debrah said the ministry expected that management would act on audit reports within three weeks of receipt.
The minister gave the ultimatum when he inaugurated a five-member audit reports implementation committee in Accra.
The five-member committee, chaired by the minister himself, would make follow-ups on all audit reports of MOFA to ensure that recommendations were actually implemented.
He said the mandate of the committee was to ensure that finances of the ministry were effectively utilised to obtain value for expenditure.
He also assured management that auditing was not about finding faults, but about correcting mistakes and preventing mismanagement of resources.
He, therefore, urged directors of departments to attend to audit reports with all the seriousness that they deserved.
Mr Debrah said management should not ignore such reports, but respond to them within three weeks of receipt.
He said as a measure to ensure that management responded promptly to audit reports, an Internal Audit Monitoring team had been set up at the ministry to periodically review all audit reports being implemented by the five-member implementation committee.
He said the implementation committee had a lot to do, considering the size of MOFA, including its agencies and projects.
Mr Debrah said to ensure a balanced approach to audit reports, membership of the implementation committee had been restructured to include some professionals from outside the main ministry.
He said it was his hope that this trust and confidence reposed in the membership would not be abused.
The five-member committee, which has the minister as the chairman, included Mr Alidu Fuseini, Director, Finance and Administration of MOFA member; Mr Agyeku Sabraw, Acting Director, Human Resource, member; Mr Ransford Agyei, Internal Audit Agency, member and Mr Ebenezer Tagoe, Institute of Internal Auditors, member.