Director of Internal Audit Agency (IAA) has admonished chartered accountants to preach peace ahead of the general elections.
Dr. Eric Oduro Osae is confident peaceful elections will spearhead economic growth and development.
He made the call during the conferment of fellowship on 150 members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana (ICAG).
The 150 members have been in practice of accountancy for more than ten years. According to the Accountancy Act, such members should receive conferment of fellowship.
These are 150 members have also proven themselves professionally in the sphere of work. They had earlier undertaken training in forensic auditing, taxation, public financial management, corporate governance including programmes of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana.
Conferring the fellowship, Dr Eric Oduro Osae cautioned the members against using their positions to engage in financial malfeasance.
“Do not perform external audit assignment in the name of a limited liability company, do not accept engagement as an auditor of an entity before the end of two years,” he advised.
“We have come out of Covid-19 as a country, we are implementing business resuscitation strategies, please we all knew what happened during the banking crisis as we unleash hundred and fifty fellows, chartered accountants into the system be guided and avoid falling into the misconduct of not reporting material misstatement in the financial report,” he added.
He was also concerned about the role of the chartered accountants in the upcoming elections.
“Colleagues, as we go into elections accountants are not only there to audit financial statements or prepare financial statements, but the advice is also that be apolitical in your professional practice. Work to ensure peaceful elections in Ghana by preaching peace and support effective financial governance in our country”.
Vice President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana Dr Cynthia Sallah emphasized on integrity for the fellowship members.
“As senior citizens of the profession therefore, we will be expected to exhibit ethical leadership, be it in the professional or secular environment. Ethical leadership has evolved over the years, some years back observing the law and following cultural norms was enough and considered ethical,” he said.
Dr Sallah asdded “In today’s existential environment and it’s existential challenges, just observing and not doing anything is not enough anymore. You also need to take proactive steps of contributing to solutions in order to be ethical. We must also continue to ensure that the body that we have been trained with and contributed towards and maintained in our day-to-day activities and decisions going forward”.
