Dr. E.O. Osae, the Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) on 22nd November, 2022 inaugurated the Audit Committee of the Ghana Aids Commission (GAC). In attendance was the Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), Hon. Dr. Kwaku Afriyie.
Dr. Kyeremeh Atuahene, Director-General of GAC said in his opening remarks that leadership values the work of the Audit Committee which is an essential governance structure for government entities. He continued that being one of such entities, Management of GAC is committed to being compliant with all the requirements of the PFM Act, hence, the inauguration of the Audit Committee to ensure the judicious use of public funds. He entreated the Committee to ensure that strong internal controls exist in the organisation.
Hon. Afriyie emphasised that the Audit Committee is an important management tool for evaluating efficiency and fit for purpose. He tasked the Committee to work selflessly for the Commission to successfully achieve the terminal elimination of AIDS by 2030.
The Director-General praised the Commission during the delivery of his address for the huge jump by way of surpluses from GHS 531,000-GHS 2.2million between  2019 and 2020 respectively. He mentioned that the baseline provided by the past Committee is very high and tasked the new Committee to emulate it. Dr. Osae said that the Audit Committee is an important Statutory Committee since the PFM is second to the Constitution in public financial management issues. The statutory functions of the Committee as enumerated by the Director-General are mandatory, advisory and supporting. On the mandatory role, the Committee is to support management in the implementation of recommendations from Internal and External Audit Reports and monitoring reports that have financial implications. The Committee is also required to submit a report on its activities annually. He charged members of the Committee to balance their energies between financial and performance audit.
On the Advisory functions, the Committee, according to Dr. Osae should support Management to mainstream enterprise risk management in the operations of the Commission. He revealed that conventional pre-auditing in public institutions is giving way to one that is risk-based. He also stated that the Government is encouraging the adoption of IPSAS to compliment the accounting system in public outfits.
The supporting roles of the Committee according to Dr. Osae include assisting the Internal Audit Unit (IAU) to prepare and submit required reports and plans among which is the RBIA Work plan due on 31st January, 2023, whilst the Annual Internal Audit Performance Report is due 31st December, 2022. Concluding, he said his KPIs include reducing the infractions reported by the Auditor-General. He tasked the Committee to assist Management in putting in place good internal controls to improve accountability and transparency.
Members of the Committee are Prof. Kwame Boasiako Omane-Antwi (IAA Rep and Chairman of the Committee), Dr. Grace Bediako (IAA Rep) and Madam Victoria Maami Ekua Hajar (Board Rep of GAC).
