Professor Olivia Kwapong, Dean of School of Continuing and Distance Education, University of Ghana, has called on Ghanaians to champion the fight against corruption at all levels to build a better nation.
She made the call at the opening of the 2021 Annual Internal Audit Conference on the theme, “Sustaining Internal Control, Risk Management and Business Continuity in the Public Sector: The Role of Stakeholders”.
Professor Kwapong noted that sustaining internal controls and managing risk in the public sector is the responsibility of all.
“For me, as a citizen of this country, I perceive that fighting corruption is best done by the heart but not the law.
“Because interestingly, the very people who make the law and are expected to enforce the law, take advantage of their knowledge of the loopholes to circumvent the regulations in their interest.”
Professor Olivia Kwapong
She further called on the citizenry to change their attitude and exhibit moral values that will help fight corruption.
“What we all need is an attitudinal change to develop a patriotic, honest, sincere values and a character that exhibit high levels of integrity.”
Professor Olivia Kwapong
Moreover, she demanded that Ghanaians change their mindsets and take responsibility for the corrupt practices ongoing in the country.
“We all have to re-work our mindsets. The corruption is with us; hence, we should not point fingers at anyone but rather point to ourselves and fix it by changing our attitude from greed, selfishness to that of honesty, sincerity, and selflessness.”
Professor Olivia Kwapong
Meanwhile, she reiterated that, “These to me, are the values that we need to sustain internal controls and fight corruption.”
Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, the Minister of National Security, also pointed out that internal audits plays an important role in the efforts to combat corruption. He explained that it makes sure that deviations from accounting practices are minimized.
“The importance of the internal audit is that it prevents the rot before it becomes the rot.”
Albert Kan-Dapaah
Dr Eric Oduro Osae, the Director-General of Internal Audit Agency, educated that the Internal Audit Agency was established by the Internal Audit Agency Act, 2003 (Act 658) with a mandate to ensure that national resources are adequately safeguarded and risks are adequately managed.
He noted that the Agency over the years, positioned itself to deliver on its mandate through the institution of pragmatic advisory and assurance services to public institutions.
“The Agency is also leaving no stone unturned by tightening control systems and ensuring that public institutions use state resources judiciously.”
Dr Eric Oduro Osae,
Prof Kwame Boasiako Omane-Antwi, a former Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Pentecost University, also urged stakeholders to ensure that they manage their auditing capacity to fight corruption.
“We are talking about values: Make sure that the heart and the mindset of the leaders and individuals in the various entities are fine-tuned, so that they will change.
“If we don’t get people with the right mindset, the right heart, no matter what controls that we put in place, we will still have the challenge, and corruption will be an uphill task to tackle”.
Prof Kwame Boasiako Omane-Antwi,
Meanwhile, the three-day conference is a flagship programme organised by the Internal Audit Agency in fulfilment of its mandate of providing a means for keeping public entities informed about the challenges and control deficiencies in the execution of Government business.
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