By Stephen G. Fellajuah
Auditor General of the General Auditing Commission, Garswa Jackson has said the country has invested a significant amount of money in drafting laws and regulations but the implementation has been a major challenge and will continue to remain so until those laws and regulations are synchronized in the form of a checklist to ease the fight against corruption.
The new GAC boss who was recently appointed and subsequently confirmed by the Liberian Senate to replace the late Madam Yusador Saadatu Gaye, said when the Public Procurement Concession Commission (PPCC) and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) synchronize their laws it will smoothen the workings of the GAC, adding that the collaboration of anti-graft institutions is key, adding the leverage on the competitive advantage of the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) to implement the laws, is very cardinal.
Auditor General Jackson made the statement yesterday, July 28, 2021 at the Monrovia City Hall at the opening of a two day Transparency and Integrity Collaborative Forum organized by the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) under the theme “Taking IAA to the People.”
Mr. Jackson asserted if the laws remain voluminous the fight against corruption will not make any progress, saying “The program is very reflective of what the government should be doing, instituting financial management controls, system building to enhance good governance and enhance compliance for laws and regulations.
According to him the forum is very paramount to the vision at the General Auditing Commission to collaborate with anti-graft institutions because the GAC is a supreme auditing institution that conducts post audit including errors, frauds and other damages that occur before the GAC steps “This GAC intends to ensure how we can prevent corruption, frauds and errors through collaboration with the anti-graft institutions to ensure frauds are minimized to an acceptable level, to do this, prevention mechanisms have to be put in place”, Commission Jackson stressed.
He however noted, non-collaboration with the IAA means that the country will not move anywhere as far as prevention of corruption is concerned. He further emphasized that the GAC wants to form a strong collaboration with anti-graft institutions to provide all the technical support needed to synchronize those laws in a national compliance checklist.
“The IAA will then use the national compliance checklist to vet transactions at government ministries and agencies, ” he said. He furthered that the GAC wants to put together a road map for the implementation of audit recommendations.
The GAC boss explained that audit is a value added asset, and also said the GAC wants to have a strong collaboration with the Ministry of Finance through the office of the Comptroller General of the Republic of Liberia to ensure the mandatory preparation of financial instruments is incentivized.
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