Exhaust internal audit processes first - Auditor General to ministries

The Auditor-General’s Office has asked all government ministries to exhaust the processes available with their internal auditors before matters are referred to the Auditor Generals’ Office.

That’s according to the Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo.

He stated that the poor level of training of internal auditors of some ministries has contributed to the continuous referral of internal audit issues to the Auditor General’s office.

Mr. Domelevo cited issues like the payment of salaries should not be referred to the Auditor Generals’ Office, but should rather be handled by the internal auditors of the various Ministries.

Speaking to Citi Business News on the current practice, Mr. Domelevo called on the various Ministries to properly train their internal auditors to enable them handle all internal audit issues of the Ministries.

“What is happening is that because these internal auditors have not been treated the way I think they should be treated, the Ministries are now referring their issues to the Auditor General to check for them instead of sending it to their internal auditors. We are supposed to come and look at the whole system including internal audit, not part of your process. But we’ve been doing that for the sake of protecting the public purse.”

The Auditor General however stated that it has decided not to entertain the requests of the Ministries from this month.

“I have signed a warning since last year saying they should train their internal auditors, and give them what they need to do their own job. So from the 1st of June we would not be entertaining Ministries telling us that they want to pay salaries so check it for us, we want to make this payment so check it for us. We will not entertain it. They have to use their internal auditors.” Read Full Story