Chairman of Internal Audit Agency, Joseph Winful
• Joseph Winful says there is a prevalence of bad leadership in public institutions
• He has proposed an integrity check before appointing leaders
• A number of public firms have been listed among tax defaulters in the 2020 Auditor-General’s report
Chairman of Internal Audit Agency, Joseph Winful has blamed the discrepancies in the 2020 Auditor-General’s report on bad leadership at government institutions.
According to him, heads of private institutions do not differ from those in the public sector, yet they are faced with so many challenges.
“Why do we have Ghanaians in the private sector who are doing so well or making the organization do so well? All that we are talking about, the ECG and the rest of them are commercial entities. Compare them to the private sector entities. Is it the same? And they are headed by the same Ghanaians so what is happening?” Joseph Winful questioned host, Aisha Ibrahim on PM Express on JoyNews.
He added that “we do not have the right leaders heading these institutions and as a result, they have also not ensured that they will have the right lieutenants who will support them to take the necessary steps that will ensure that those institutions are doing so well.
“What is being stated by the Auditor-General will not be acceptable in the private sector.”
Between July 2018 and December 2019, 28 Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) failed on their tax payments, according to the Auditor-General’s report.
The 28 OMCs owing the GRA-Customs Division $226,942,904.00 in petroleum taxes from the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).
The report also stated that the Electricity Company of Ghana lost 2,649.08 GWh, or 24.30 percent of the power obtained from power-producing businesses, due to system losses, and Cenit Energy incurred charges of 182,576,235.15 as capacity charge for the year 2018.
Mr Winful has proposed choosing competent and trustworthy individuals to lead public organizations in order to eliminate the fraudulent practices exposed by the Auditor-General in his 2020 report.
“I see the main problem as having institutional leadership. As Madam mentioned about holding persons accountable, I will go a bit further and say that it starts from the top, that is the leader of the institution. Is he competent enough? Has he got integrity? Has he the capacity and capabilities to undertake the assignment?
“If appointments are made on that basis, you are going to have a leader who is not going to let all these happen. Because the leader will even insist that the lieutenants know what exactly they are supposed to do and will be held accountable and as a result, you are not going to have this,” he said.
