The Audit Committee of the Ghana Export-Import Bank was inaugurated on 28th June, 2022 by Dr. Eric Oduro Osae, Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency.
The CEO of the Bank, Mr. Lawrence Agyinsam in his opening address said as an institution, the Bank has been compliant to Section 86 of the Public Financial Management (PFM) Act (Act 921) since its inception in 2016. He commended out-going members for their immense contribution and said he hoped new members would devote their expertise and knowledge and contribute to achieving the Bank’s mandate. The CEO wished members a very successful tenure.
Dr. Osae in his address, congratulated the newly appointed members of the Audit Committee and thanked the outgoing Audit Committee for holding the fort and supporting the institution to deliver on its mandate. He said the Audit Committee is a statutory Committee second only to the Constitution and has the mandatory advisory and supporting roles of members prescribed under the PFM Act, 2016. Under the mandatory roles, members of the Committee are to work with Management to implement recommendations from Internal and External Audit reports, directives from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament or recommendations from monitoring reports of the Institution. He informed members of their requirement to submit Annual reports which is expected to reach recipients by the 30th of June.
Speaking on the advisory roles, the Director-General advised members to bring their expertise to bear on the operations of the Bank and see it as their contribution to the country. He mentioned the absence of a risk register and fraud register indicated in the External Auditors report and encouraged them to work with the Institution to develop one if it has not been done yet. Dr. Osae asked them to fall on the Agency’s Enterprise Risk Unit for support if need be. On the supporting roles, members were advised to support the Internal Audit Unit to support Management. He said the KPI of the Audit Committee is to work to reduce infractions reported by the Internal Audit Unit. Dr. Osae indicated some infractions raised by the Auditor-General and tasked the Audit Committee to work with out-going members to resolve them.
In his concluding remarks Dr. Osae advised members of the Committee to respect the independence of Management and pledged the support of the Agency.
Mr. Agyinsam in his closing remarks said they had legacy loans that would require an Act of Parliament to write off. He said as a developing bank, leadership will ensure it works hard to achieve the mandate of the institution. He also stated that leadership will work closely with the Committee to ensure the institution becomes one of the best internationally.
