Audit Service to conduct construction audit on roads, buildings

The Auditor-General, Mr Daniel Yaw Domelevo, has announced that the Audit Service will soon conduct a construction audit on roads and buildings undertaken by government agencies to ensure that there was value for money.

According to him, the exercise was to protect the public purse and to safeguard allocated funds intended for infrastructural projects.

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At the maiden launch of the 2018 Audit held in Accra on Wednesday, Mr Domelevo explained that his outfit would adopt the quality assurance approach with engineers and other professionals at its Performance Audit Unit in charge of the exercise.

“For instance, if a 200km road is to be constructed, we want to measure that with the contractors, go the full length of the work with them to see to it that the 200km road we are paying for is being done,” he said.

The launch was on the theme “Accountability: a shared responsibility.”

Revenue Mobilisation

Mr Domelevo said the areas to be audited would include revenue mobilisation, to be done in collaboration with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

He said this was to ensure that there was transparency and accountability of public revenue.

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“About a month ago we began training 12 of our staff on the GcNet software system, used in collecting taxes,” he said.

He, however, warned that the Auditor-General is mandated to disallow and surcharge monies government would lose against the person whose negligence or non-performance or misbehaviour caused the loss.

Mr Domelevo indicated that the Auditor-General had completed the auditing of the public services in Central and Western regions with regards to the issue of ghost names, and would from next week continue in the Volta Region.

Audit Service role

The Auditor-General emphasised that the role of the audit service was not to destroy the reputation of organisations but to protect the public purse, adding that, it was time the Audit Service did not only surcharge expenditure but revenue as well.

He called for the strengthening of the internal audit departments of public institutions to help them accurately audit the institutions.

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Mr Domelevo entreated public entities to discontinue giving monies to audit teams, saying that the audit service had been adequately resourced to take care of its officers.

For her part, the Chairman of the Public Services Commission (PSC), Mrs Janet Ampadu Fofie, urged the audit service to be independent and courageous in undertaking its auditing activities.

Source: Graphic.com.gh