The Internal Audit Agency (IAA) says President Joseph Boakai has demonstrated one of the basic steps that expresses his political will to fight corruption.
The Audit agency revealed that the office of the President has invited the Internal Audit Agency and approved the deployment of an internal auditor from IAA, who will supervise, direct and control all internal audit activities at the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs.
According to an internal memorandum between the two entities under the signature of the Deputy Minister for Administration at the Ministry of State, Cornelia Kruah-Togba, the Internal Audit Agency Staff was mandated to commence duties effectively last Monday, June 10, 2024.
The memorandum further requires heads of departments at the Ministry to accord the internal auditor all required courtesy in the discharge of official duties.
Credible sources closed to the Ministry of State have indicated that this is the first time that the Office of the President is accepting an internal auditor to be deployed, since the establishment of the Internal Audit Agency in September 2013.
We have been further informed that though efforts were made under previous governments to have internal auditors assigned at the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs, those efforts yielded no fruitful results.
Part 2 section 2.2 (a) of the IAA Act of 2013 mandates the IAA to establish and direct internal audit functions within all branches of government including the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary; and all public sector entities such as, public corporations, autonomous agencies, autonomous commissions, government ministries and the Central Bank of Liberia.
Predicated on the Act quoted above, pundits have considered such acceptance of the IAA auditor as a demonstration of political will by President Boakai to lead by example in ensuring that the daily processes and transactional activities of the Ministry of State to make them remain in full compliance with relevant laws.
IAA sources speaking on anonymity said this decision by the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs has set the basis for other government institutions to begin embracing the presence of Internal Audit Agency in order to help prevent wastes and abuse of public resources.
It is being investigated that a good number of public corporations and State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) are either resisting the presence of the IAA auditors or are establishing departments to perform similar functions as the IAA, which run in direct contravention of the law.
The IAA insider maintained that President Boakai has now set the tone at the top by demonstrating his commitment to strengthening compliance in the public sector and it is expected that all other public entities will follow the President’s good example or bear the consequences of their inactions.
