On 24th August, 2022, Dr. Eric Oduro Osae, Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency inaugurated the Audit Committee of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS).
The Deputy Comptroller-General in charge of Finance and Administration, COI Isaac Owusu Mensah in his opening address welcomed all to the inauguration on behalf of the Comptroller-General. He said significant development has been witnessed in Ghana’s Public Financial Systems over the years and the passage of the Public Financial Management Act 2016 (Act 921) has brought a lot of changes in the operations and conduct of public institutions including the GIS. He added that, the GIS has been doing very well with regards to the PFM Act. He informed the meeting of the establishment and operationalization of a number of systems and procedures to improve the operations and financial management processes of the Service.
The Deputy Comptroller-General said the previous Audit Committee significantly helped the Service in diverse ways including resolution of audit issues, advisory support as well as technical support for which leadership was grateful. He pledged the support of Management to the work of the new Committee to enable the Service reap the full benefits of members’ experience and professionalism.
Dr. Osae in his address congratulated the newly sworn-in members and thanked the outgoing Committee for their excellent work. He said the Audit Committee is a statutory Committee established under the Public Financial Management Act for all Public Sector institutions. He said the Service’s operations are very delicate and needed to be well monitored. He outlined the mandatory, advisory and supporting roles of the Committee and added that it is not to take over the management of the Service but to support it deliver on its mandate through advisory and assurance services.
As part of their mandatory roles, the Director-General said the Committee is to ensure recommendations from Internal and External Audit Reports, directives from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament and internal monitoring reports are implemented. He encouraged the Committee to be more interested in performance audit as per the mandate of the Service, performance is critical. Dr. Osae informed the Committee of its mandate to annually produce a report indicating the extent to which it has supported in the delivery of the institution’s mandate. Copies of this report he said are to be submitted to key stakeholders including the Director-General of the Agency.
On the advisory role, Dr. Osae tasked the Committee to support the Service build and implement good risk management systems due to the exposure of the Service to risks. He tasked the Committee to guard the institution’s integrity by supporting leadership implement good control systems. Speaking on the supporting roles, the Director-General said the Committee is to support the Internal Audit Unit deliver on its mandate and tasked them to work with Management to support the Unit with the needed logistics for the timely submission of their work plans and reports. He informed them of the publication of defaulting institutions and the collaboration with the Ministry of Finance in applying appropriate sanctions within the PFM Act.
Dr. Osae in concluding shared a number of issued raised in the 2020 Auditor-General’s report and tasked the Committee to work with Management to implement these recommendations. He advised Management to invite the Audit Committee to sit in Entrance and Exit conferences of External Auditors.
The COI Isaac Owusu Mensah in his closing remarks thanked all for making it to the inauguration. He was appreciative of the old Committee and assured the new Committee of Management’s support to raise high the name of GIS.
