The Audit Committee of the Ghana TVET Service was inaugurated by the Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) on 11th August, 2022.
Members of the Committee are Mr. Seidu Abdulai (IAA Rep and Chairman of the Committee), Madam Akyaa Arhin (IAA Rep), Mr. Duku Acheampong (ICAG Rep), Madam Rejoice Dankwa and Dr. Emmanuel Marfo are members of the TVET Council.
Madam Lily Djima, Deputy Director-General, Corporate Affairs of the Ghana TVET Service chaired the event on behalf of the Director-General. In the opening remarks delivered on behalf of the Director-General, Madam Djima said the Service which is backed by the Pre-Tertiary Act 2020 (Act 1049) was launched on 2nd December, 2022 and is still in its formative stage. She continued that at the Service’s maiden meeting held in February, 2022, among the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) set for Management is ensuring the smooth take off of the Audit Committee. It was for this purpose that the meeting had been scheduled, Madam Djima added. She mentioned that the Service is currently overseeing the operations of 260 Technical Institutions and still counting. She intimated that the institutions have been aligned from twelve (12) Ministries and stated that oversight responsibility over such a huge number of institutions called for the assistance of such a cream of experts like the members of the Committee.
Delivering his address, the Director-General of IAA congratulated members and said the Audit Committee is a Statutory Committee established under the PFM Act to support public institutions to succeed. He said Government is not happy about infractions that occur in public institutions and as such put in place the Audit Committee to ensure good management and infractions reported by the Auditor-General are reduced to the barest minimum. He mentioned that TVET education is on the heart of Government and since a lot of Donor Partners support it, infractions are unacceptable.
Dr. Osae outlined the mandatory, advisory and supporting roles of the Audit Committee. He stated that the mandatory roles of the Committee include supporting Management to implement recommendations from Internal and External Audit Reports and directives from the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament. He advised Management to cooperate with the Committee and organize orientation for members to enable them understand the vision and strategic plan of the Service to better assist it. He said industralised countries such as Germany, Japan etc being what they are today through TVET education. He continued that if Ghana TVET is able to add value to technical jobs such as plumbing, welding, masonry etc Ghana will witness a lot of developments.
On the advisory roles, Dr. Osae said the Committee is to advise Management on the implementation of sound financial and risk management policies. He mentioned that risk management is the way to go and as a new institution, Ghana TVET needs it. He said Management should not be afraid to make mistakes because it is out of mistakes that lessons are learnt. It was for this reason that experts had been put at the disposal of the Service to provide guidance. He added if the Management needs training in risk management, it should not hesitate to get in touch with the Agency. According to the Director-General, the supporting roles of members include supporting the Internal Auditor to provide advisory and assurance services to Management so it will not fall into avoidable pitfalls. He said the Committee should work with the Internal Auditor and Management to resolve all audit issues before admitting External Auditors. He tasked members to assist Management to deal with the audit issues of the Ministries the Service has taken over.
Dr. Osae concluded by tasking members to help resolve the inherited liabilities and help reposition the new Service. He invited the meeting to the 2022 Internal Audit Conference taking place from 16th-18th August, 2022 at the UPSA Auditorium.
In her closing remarks, Madam Djima thanked the Director-General for inaugurating the Audit Committee and said his advice has been taken in good faith. She entreated the Committee to educate managers of the 12 Ministries to effectively cooperate with the TVET Service to enable it deliver on its mandate.
