Accra, Nov. 3, GNA – The Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency (IAA), Dr Eric Oduro Osae, has inaugurated a new five-member audit committee for the Forestry Commission with a call on members to work together with the board, management and stakeholders to ensure efficient management of public funds.
The Audit Committee is a high-level corporate governance Committee, which among other functions, ensures that the management of the institution implements recommendations in external and internal audit reports, and implements Parliament’s decisions on the Auditor-General’s report as well as the reports of internal monitoring units.
He said public financial management systems were key to transparent and accountable governance, adding that the committee was in accordance with the Public Financial Management (PFM) Act, 2016 (Act 921).
Dr Osae said the Audit Committee was very important in the governance of the Forestry Commission and called on management to support the committee to ensure the efficient execution of their mandate.
He urged the committee members to put their professional expertise at the disposal of management and support management by being present at entrance and exit meetings of external auditors as they were better placed to respond to and resolve issues with them.
Dr Osae said risk management was critical and urged members to help implement good risk management systems and work with management to ensure the organization delivered on its core mandate.
The director-general charged the committee to develop an Annual Risk-Based-Plan and conduct quarterly Internal Audit reports under the Public Financial Management Act. He further encouraged members to support the Internal Audit to comply with this requirement.
He urged the new Committee members to ensure the provision of effective management, advisory, and support functions to FC to ensure that all issues that are audit-related are resolved before it gets out of hand.
The Chief Executive of the Forestry Commission, Mr. John Allotey, said the inauguration of the re-constituted Audit Committee was key to the governance system of the Forestry Commission.
He said the Commission was more than ready to collaborate with the Audit Committee to ensure that all audit recommendations and decisions of Parliament on the Auditor-General’s report were promptly and adequately dealt with as recommended.
The Committee is chaired by Mr. Kwasi Agyemang. The other members are George Wireko Brobbey, Professor Kingsley Oppong, Mr.Isaac Agyin Bonney and Mr Senanu Mensah.
GNA