The Chairman of Internal Audit Agency, Joseph Winful, has suggested appointment of persons with competence and integrity to head institutions will eradicate corrupt practices uncovered by the Auditor-General (A-G) in its 2020 report.
“I see the main problem as having institutional leadership which starts from the top, whether they are competent enough, have integrity, capacity and capabilities to undertake the assignment.
“If appointments are made on that basis, you are going to have leaders who are not going to let corruption happen because they will insist subordinates know what exactly they are supposed to do, will be held accountable and as a result, you are not going to have corruption,” Mr Winful asserted.
His response was to back comments by Linda Ofori-Kwafo, the Director of Ghana Integrity Initiative, who insisted culprits should be severely sanctioned.
The audit report from the Auditor-General disclosed 28 Oil Marketing Companies defaulted in payment of taxes between July, 2018 and December 2019, owed Ghana Revenue Authority-Customs Division an amount of GH¢226, 942,904 as taxes on petroleum from the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).
It also revealed Electricity Company of Ghana lost GH¢2,649.08 which represents 24.30 per cent of power purchased from power-producing companies, to system losses and incurred expenses to the tune of GH¢182,576,235.15 as capacity charge by Cenit Energy for12 months in 2018.
According to Mrs Ofori-Kwafo, the Public Procurement Act was to guide institutions including other laws but holding organisations accountable was what the nation lacked.
Mr Winful noted that having the right people at helm of affairs would ensure issues of corrupt practices were resolved by confronting leadership for right persons to be appointed and cautioned that all the systems, procedures, laws, legislations must work properly to avoid malfeasance.
He observed that the 2020 Auditor-General’s report found several discrepancies because institutions cited were not being led by right individuals and different from those in public sector and not confronted with such challenges and quizzed why leadership in private sector avoided corruption practices. -myjoyonline.com
