The Audit Committee of the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) was inaugurated by Mr. Alhassan Fuseini, Deputy Director in charge of Projects Coordinating and Monitoring Unit (PCMU) on behalf of the Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency on 26th October, 2022.
Chairing the inauguration, Mr. Clifford Edmund Frimpong, Ag. Director-General of the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) said the establishment of the Audit Committee is very important and key to the smooth running of the institution. He emphasized that, without checks and balances, everything will go haywire.
Members of the Committee are Mr. Edward Fiawoyife (IAA Rep and Chairman of the Committee), Mrs. Josephine Opoku-Agyemang (IAA Rep), Madam Vivian Dodoo (ICAG Rep) and Mr. Michael Opare-Darkwah, Board member of GSA.
Addressing the meeting, Mr. Fuseini outlined the three statutory roles of the Audit Committee as prescribed by the PFM Act. These, he said are mandatory, advisory and supporting roles. The mandatory roles include supporting Management to implement recommendations contained in Internal and External Audit Reports, directives from Parliament, Auditor-General’s Management Letter, monitoring reports from the Monitoring Unit of GSA that bother on finances. The advisory roles of the Committee Mr. Fuseini continued, include providing advice on the risk processes of the Authority in order to generate a comprehensive risk system. He added that if there was no risk management policy, the Committee should support Management to develop one. He mentioned that the effectiveness of the Committee would be in question should serious infractions be discovered by External Auditors during its tenure. Mr. Fuseini added that since the GSA’s mandate is to ensure compliance with standards, the institution itself should not default in compliance.
On the supporting roles, Mr. Fuseini stated that the Committee should ensure the Internal Audit Unit (IAU) has adequate staff capacity. He stressed that when internal control processes are not working, they would manifest in the audit findings reported by both Internal and External Auditors. He concluded that with the current economic situation the country finds itself in, the Committee should assist in safeguarding the public purse.
In his closing remarks, Mr. Frimpong said he was elated with the inauguration which has been outstanding for some time. He assured the maximum support of leadership to the work of the IAU and Audit Committee.