UEW Governing Council inaugurates five-member Audit Committee

The Governing Council of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) Wednesday, 8^th November, 2017 inaugurated a five-member Audit Committee at the Council Chamber, North Campus in Winneba.

The five-member Audit Committee consisted of two Internal Auditors nominated by the Governing Council and three External Auditors nominated by the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) and Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG).  The nominees were Professor Kwame Adom-Frimpong (IAA), Mr. Francis Obeng (ICAG), Mr. Thomas Atuam, Mr. John Darko and Mr. Nathan Yankey (IAA).  

In his address, Chairman of the UEW Governing Council, Professor Emmanuel Nicholas Abakah said, "the Committee had to ensure that the Head or the covered entity pursues the implementation of recommendations contained in both External and Internal Audit report paramount decision on the Auditor General’s report as well as the report of the internal monitoring issued."

He added that the Committee must ensure that the Head of Internal Audit of the University functioned effectively. “Audit Committee is a creature of statutes. Section 86 of Act 921 of the Public Financial Management provides for the setting up of the Audit Committee. Section 87 of Act 921 also provides for the composition of the committee.” He said.

He revealed that the Committee had mandatory and advisory roles as its main responsibilities. He said, “the Committee has extensive authority notable among them are; unrestricted access to management, employees and all relevant records, books, vouchers and other documents in relation to audit report of the covered entity.”

Professor Abakah said the Committee was entitled to obtain professional advice from relevant government organisations when necessary, investigate into any matters within the scope of responsibility and resolve any disagreement between management and Internal Auditors.     

The Chairman of the Governing Council authorised the five-member Committee to appoint its chairman and in unison Professor Adom-Frimpong was appointed the Chairman of the Audit Committee.

In his response, Professor Adom-Frimpong thanked the Chairman of the UEW Governing Council and said that he would steer the affairs of the Audit Committee to attain excellence. He added, “that would not be done by me alone. It will be a collective responsibility and a collective working experience we are going to have.”

He promised to be objective, ensure that the University’s financial requirements remained stable and adhere to the University’s financial policies. He advised members to be effective, fair and transparent with their work in order to achieve their corporate aim.    

Acting Director General of IAA, Ransford Agyei also advised the Committee members to work effectively, persuade and put pressure on management to ensure there was sanity in the Public Financial Management of UEW. He petitioned the External Auditors to support the Internal Auditors to perform their work diligently. 

In attendance were the acting Vice-Chancellor, Rev. Fr. Prof. Anthony Afful-Broni and Registrar, Surv. Paul Osei-Barima Esq.