December 19, (THEWILL) – Under the Forum of Heads of Internal Audit of Federal Tertiary Health Institutions, internal auditors in the country have called for Independence to enhance their efficiency.
The auditors made this known in a communiqué issued in Calabar, at the end of their 10th Annual Summit.
The communiqué was signed by Okpachui Jackson, the Chairman of the Forum and its secretary, Iregbu Richard.
According to them, “Management of various MDAs should ensure that the Internal Audit’s Independence is guaranteed, there should be no undue influence from top management.
“In furtherance of the government’s endeavour on the Public Finance Management Reform, full access rights should be granted to the Internal Auditors to the relevant electronic platforms to enable them to effectively perform their strategic functions (100% payment audit enabling).
“Management should ensure that the Internal Audit receives the necessary backup to exercise its authority.
“The heads of Internal Audit should also be members of the top management”, they said.
The Forum also identified various issues/challenges auditors face including the absence of skilled manpower, lack of Independence, undue influence as well as the absence of enabling environment for them to function.
Others are the absence of Management’s backup, lack of training/retraining of Internal Audit Staff, and absence/inadequacy of IT infrastructure.
This year’s Summit had as its theme “A well-equipped and functional audit department: A priceless asset to any organisation.”
As part of the Summit, various papers were presented by resource persons, one by Onyemachi C.I, where he contended that a well-equipped and functional internal audit department is a priceless asset to an organisation.
This he argued is because the assets of the organisation will be safeguarded, growth will be assured and investors will be attracted to the organisation.
About the Author
THEWILL Correspondent, Aniekan Bassey has over six years experience that spans across several fields in print journalism including development communication, sexual reproductive and health rights issues, crime, climate change, social justice, business and human interest stories.
