Mr Daniel Yaw Domelevo, the Auditor-General, has urged internal auditors to be professional and courageous in the discharge of their duties despite the poor working conditions and intimidations from some senior management members of their organisations.

He noted that internal auditors often faced intimidations and sometimes maligned for being professional and, thus, charged them not to give up.

“I tell people that when you’re being professional and bold, you become like a cork…they will push you down but for some days or years they will be tired and you will come up”.

He said internal auditors were supposed to be the “ears and eyes” of their organisations and, therefore, entreated management to create an enabling environment for them to work efficiently.

Mr Domelevo said this at the opening of the Annual Internal Audit and Governance Conference of the Institute of Internal Auditors Ghana, in Accra on Wednesday.

The two-day conference, which is on the theme: “Impact of Leadership on Institutional Governance,” attracted heads of ministries, departments and agencies, managers and chief executive officers of public organisations and internal auditors across the country.

The event would create a platform for knowledge-sharing, networking and stock taking of activities and chart the way towards ensuring accountability, transparency and good governance in public institutions.

The Auditor-General said many professional practitioners all over the world had undergone difficult times and maligned for being professional, saying; “that is the story of every successful person because they’re tenacious in their purpose and they still come up”.

He, however, asked internal auditors to send the original copies of their reports to his office whenever they faced various acts of intimidation from senior management.

He assured them that their identities would not be disclosed to safeguard them from further intimidation, adding that the Auditor-General would rather dispatch a team to undertake special audit of the organisation in question.

Mr Domelevo said bad governance was a bane to progress and asked various institutions to put systems in place to achieve their corporate objectives.

He said the President alone could not bring the desired change but needed the active support of the citizens to achieve progress.

The Auditor-General urged the Internal Audit Agency to be proactive and engage the senior management of organisations to let them understand their role.

He gave the assurance that from this year onward the annual report of the Auditor-General would include that of the internal auditors so that government would appreciate their work.

Mrs Juliet Aboagye-Wiafe, the President of the Institute of Internal Auditors, Ghana, in her welcome address, said the conference would enable the professionals to share knowledge and network to remain relevant to their organisations.

She said organisations faced a number of challenges due to globalisation, therefore, the platform would equip participants with the right information and attitudes to work effectively for the success of their institutions.