Director General of the Internal Audit Agency (IAA), Dr. Eric Oduro Osae has revealed that the Agency is yet to have its own office building, years after it was established by an Act of Parliament.

The Agency which was established in 2003 to enhance efficiency, accountability and transparency in the management of resources in the public sector has had to move offices five times since its establishment, according to Dr. Osae.

He said, “The agency as a corruption preventing institution at the moment is not in its own office premises. The agency has never had its own office since the agency was established.

“At the moment, the agency is housed at the 5^th floor of Ghana House, the former GNTC building and even on the 5^th floor; we are occupying part of the 5^th floor. That is the kind of challenge we have.”

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, Dr. Oduro Osae stated that the challenge primarily stems from the legislation that supports the activities of the Internal Audit Service.

He described the Internal Audit Agency Act, 2003 (Act 658) as being obsolete; and revealed that action is being taken review the law.

“But can you blame anybody? We cannot blame anybody because the legislation or the law supporting internal audits in the country itself is obsolete. So we have initiated a process to review the law, and I believe that once the law is reviewed or amended or repealed, and we have all internal auditors coming under a new Internal Audit Service, maybe this circumstance or this situation would be resolved,” he said.

His comments were in reaction to JoyNews’ revelation that the Office of the Special Prosecutor was cash strapped.

This is after the OSP had made a request for the approval of a GHS1 billion budget to set up the office, build a cyber-security and forensic lab, cells to keep suspects and purchase other logistics.

But available information indicates that the Finance Ministry committed about GHS170 million out of which only GHS10 million have been released.

According to Dr. Osae, “if we were to even have 20% of what the OSP has now and we were even to have the imposing building that the OSP has now, I can tell you that the Internal Audit Agency working through the network of Internal Auditors across this country would be able to prevent a lot of corrupt activities before it even happens.”