Dr. E. O. Osae, Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency inaugurated the Audit Committee of the Forestry Commission (FC) on 2nd November, 2022. Mr. John Allotey, Chief Executive Officer of the FC in his opening address said audit is given utmost importance at the Commission and applauded the work of the outgoing Committee and its contribution to the FC’s mandate.
Dr. Osae in his address noted that the Audit Committee is a statutory Committee set up under Section 86 of the Public Financial Management Act. He said the Committee has three main roles, mandatory, advisory and supporting. Under the mandatory, the Committee is to work with Management implement recommendations contained in Internal and External Audit Reports, directives from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament and internal monitoring reports that have financial malpractices or irregularities. As a statutory Committee, it is to submit a report annually to the Office of the President which indicates the number of reports that have come to their attention during the year and the extent to which they have been able to support Management implement recommendations in these reports and the outstanding reports. These reports, he said, should be copied to the Speaker of Parliament, the Auditor-General and the Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency. He advised that the Committee should work with management to implement recommendations in all reports to avoid appearing before the PAC.
On the advisory role, Dr. Osae advised members of the Committee to ensure issues of administrative weakness are resolved. He encouraged them to look at performance auditing where administrative lapses are ignored but are usually raised by External Auditors. He informed the Committee of the move of Public Sector Internal Auditing from the conventional pre-auditing to risk-based auditing and tasked members to join Management at entrance and exit meetings of External Auditors.
Speaking on the supporting role, the Director-General encouraged members of the Committee to support the Internal Audit Unit and help staff develop a risk-based plan. He informed the Committee of the deadline and tasked it to ensure timely submission. Other reports to be submitted by the internal Audit Unit with the supervision of the Audit Committee include an Annual Internal Audit Performance Report by 31st December, 2022. He indicated the effort of government to tighten control systems in Public Sector institutions and encouraged members to be interested in Performance Audit in addition to the Financial Audit to prevent lapses. Dr. Osae shared on the move by government to pass a Bill which will convert the Agency into a Service.
Members of the Audit Committee are Mr. Paul Kwesi Agyeman (ICAG and Rep Chairman), Mr. Senanu K. Mensah (IAA Rep), Mr. Isaac Adjin Bonney (IAA Rep). Mr. Samuel Kingsley Oppong represent the Board of FC and Mr. Cudjoe Awudi is the Secretary of the Committee.
