Audit Service to network offices

Story: Boahene Asamoah
11/03/08
THE Audit Service is to network all its regional and district offices to ensure efficiency in service delivery and enable the service to clear the backlog of unaudited government accounts in the country.
In an interview in Accra yesterday shortly after the opening of a 10-day orientation programme for recruits into the Audit Service, a Deputy Auditor-General in charge of Finance and Administration, Mr Richard Quartey, said with the assistance of the European Union, efforts to network its regional offices were almost complete.
He said the vision of the service was to go beyond the regional capitals to also network all the districts in the country to ensure efficient audit service in the country.
Mr Quartey said the exercise would go a long way to address some of the constraints in the Audit Service and would impact positively on the operations of the service.
At the opening ceremony, he called on the recruits to exhibit a high sense of integrity, accountability and professionalism to ensure quality service.
Mr Quartey further urged them to “desist from indulging in acts that would put the service into disrepute.”
He said the Audit Service was an independent body committed to ensuring proper accountability of all government spending, adding that it was only when members of staff exhibited a high sense of professional competencies that public accountability could be secured.
Some 140 out of 520 applicants, who are products of the country’s polytechnics and universities, have been recruited by the Ghana Audit Service, and it is believed that this is the single largest employment opportunity ever offered by the service.
Mr Quartey said the orientation would offer the new employees the opportunity to upgrade themselves with the legal and operation mandate of the service as envisaged under the Constitution.
He called on them to also pursue their own professional development to equip them with the necessary professional tools to make them efficient.
Mr Quartey said the current recruitment formed part of the service’s programme to employ more hands to ensure that it was able to carry out its mandate efficiently.