As the Liberian government prepares for the next fiscal year, the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) says it is leaving no stone unturned thus, announcing two weeks review of all existing policies.
Speaking to this paper Friday at the IAA Head Office in Congo Town, Communication Director Adolphus Kawah said, the IAA has embarked upon a robust reform process to enhance services to the public.
He said the reform is aligned with a five-year strategic plan aimed at improving internal controls across government, enhance human resource capacity, increase efficiency and effectiveness of internal audit functions, and enhance stakeholders and public confidence.
He said to achieve this, the IAA is beginning a two-week in-house technical working session to review all existing policies and develop new ones that are relevant to its processes and align them with the five-year strategic plan for subsequent validation.
Kawah added that the technical working session will also extensively review the entity’s strategic plan and determine how realistic are the milestones that will drive the achievement of strategic goals in the short, medium and long terms.
“Though the plan is for five years, the IAA is determined to begin achieving some of the major goals in the ensuing fiscal years, including; transitioning from manual to automation of audit processes to ensure real-time reporting, efficiency and quality of service delivery, manual auditing is time-consuming and highly prone to errors, and enhancement and capacity building of staff by supporting them to acquire professional certifications, such as CIA, CPA, ACCA, CA, CFE, etc”, Kawah noted.
According to him, the reform should not come across as censoring the works of predecessors; instead, it is building upon what was passed over from previous management to develop new strategies and ideas that conform with present realities.
He added that the reform presents an opportunity to assess institutional weaknesses and identify opportunities for improvement in the services they provide at various ministries, agencies and commissions of the government.