GAC inaugurates 5-member public financial management c’ttee

 A five-member Audit Committee has been inaugurated for the Ghana Aids Commission (GAC) to ensure adherence to public financial management regulations.

The committee chaired by Professor Kwame Boasiako Omane-Antwi has Mrs Victoria M.E Hagar, Dr Grace Bediako, Mr Emmanuel K. Arthur and Mrs Lucy Brimpong Ofori-Ayeh as members are to oversee the management of financial resources of the Commission in line with financial management regulations govern­ing state institutions.

The Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency (IAA), Dr Eric Oduro Osae, who inaugurated the committee led them to swear the oath of office and secrecy in accordance with the Public Finance Man­agement (PFM) Act 2016.

Addressing the committee at a short inaugural ceremony in Accra yesterday, Dr Osae said the Audit Committee was a statutory one which was not to take over management of the Commission but to support in the achievement of its mandate.

He said the committee was required to perform the mandatory, advisory and sup­porting roles prescribed by the PFM Act.

Dr Osae explained that the mandatory roles of the Committee included assisting leadership of the Commission to imple­ment recommendations from Internal and External Audit Reports and directives from Public Account Committee of Parliament.

He added that an equally important man­datory function of the Committee was the preparation and submission of an annual report of which copies should be submit­ted to the Office of the President, Parlia­ment, the Auditor-General and the IAA.

He intimated that Parlia­ment upon receipt of the report, refers it to the appropriate Select Committee, saying the aim was to prevent the Auditor-General from reporting financial irregularities in his report.

Dr Osae said the advisory role of the Committee also include advising on the implementation of good risk management systems. In this vein, he tasked the Com­mittee to fine-tune the risk management policy of the institution if there was one and if not, assist in the development of one so the risk register could be populated.

On the supporting role, the Direc­tor-General requested the Committee to as­sist the Internal Audit Unit to prepare and submit the 2023 Risk-Based Internal Audit (RBIA) Work plan which he intimated was due on January 31, 2023.

He charged members to work in collab­oration with Management of the Commis­sion so infractions reported by the Audi­tor-General were reduced.

The Executive Oversight Minister of GAC, Dr Kwaku Afriyie urged the com­mittee to work together to successfully to achieve the mandate of the Commission to achieve the epidemic control by the year 2025 before the terminal elimination by 2030.

The Director-General of GAC, Dr Kyeremeh Atuahene congratulated the committee members saying their work was very vital to the Commission’s financial management processes.

“As a human institution, we know that not everything can be well with the organisation because the procedures and the systems will have to work for perfec­tion to be achieved therefore, not being perfect we know some issues may come up but they must not be issues that border on misapplication or misuse of funds and this is where the work of this committee is so important to us,” he added.

The chairman of the committee, Prof. Omane-Antwi, on behalf of the members expressed gratitude to the President and the minister for the honour reposed in them and pledged to contribute their quota to ensure the commission achieve its mandate.

BY VIVIAN ARTHUR AND CHARITY ASUKA