By Hafsa Obeng
Accra, Nov. 23, GNA – A five-member Audit Committee for the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) was on Tuesday inaugurated to guide and ensure that the Commission complies with all laws relating to its financial management of public funds.
The Committee members are: Professor Kwame Boasiako Omane-Antwi, Mrs Victoria M. E Hajar, Dr Grace Bediako, Mr Emmanuel K. Arthur, and Mrs Lucy Brimpong Ofori-Ayeh.
Dr Kwaku Afriyie, the Executive Oversight Minister for the Commission, said the Audit Board was a very important management tool to ensure effectiveness, efficiency, value for money and fit for purpose.
He said the Committee formed an important part of the public sector governance framework, and that it was essential in ensuring that the Commission achieved epidemic control by the year 2025 and terminal elimination of AIDS by 2030.
Dr Afriyie, who is also the Minister for Environment, Science, technology, and Innovation, said to eliminate HIV and AIDS, there were several pathways, especially by stopping new infections.
He said so apart from managing programmes and projects, it was important for the Committee to assist the Commission in its processes towards eliminating the disease.
“Because of its socio-economic implication, the disease has been very difficult to eliminate, so the Committee must work together to successfully achieve the mandate of the Commission so that we achieve the epidemic control by the year 2025 and look at terminal elimination by 2030,” he said.
He commended members of the Committee for accepting to serve the nation.
Dr Kyeremeh Atuahene, Director General, GAC, said the nature of the work of the Commission required the full compliance of the public based on trust, hence the need to have an effective Audit Committee to guide the Commission in achieving the public trust and confidence to work to achieve the national goal of ending AIDS by 2030.
“We now have the tools and the strategies to end AIDS and eliminate HIV transmission, but for this to happen we need the resources, logistics and funding, and we can only get support for this when we have a transparent and accountable system,” he added.
He said the Committee would be responsible in guiding the GAC and ensure that it had strong internal controls, which were accountable and transparent, and compliant with the laws relating to the financial management of public funds.
Dr Eric Oduro-OSae, Director General, Internal Audit Agency, said the Committee was a statutory Committee set up under the Public Financial Management Act.
He said the Committee had mandatory roles to support the Commission design and implement good control systems, advisory roles to help management to anticipate problems before they occurred and support GAC to prepare risk based internal audit plan.
Professor Omane-Antwi, Chairman of the Committee, stated the readiness of the members to help add value to what the Commission was mandated to do.
GNA