Accra, March 10, GNA - Mr Richard Quartey, Deputy Auditor-General of the Audit Service, on Monday attributed undue delay in the auditing of public institutions to lack of auditors to perform the task.

He said the Service needed over 2,000 employees and its current workforce of 1,500 was inadequate to get the job done on time. Mr Quartey was speaking to newsmen in Accra after the opening of a 10-day orientation course for 140 newly employed staff of the Service. The training is to expose the employees to a code of ethics and objectives, and how the Service operates under the Audit Service Act, 2000 (Act 584).

He said as part of efforts to improve its work, the Service with support from the European Union had completed networking of all its offices in the regional capitals and hoped to extend it to the metropolitan, municipal and district offices to facilitate their work. At the opening of the course, Mr Quartey asked the employees to work hard to ensure probity, accountability and transparency in the management of public funds.

"You are also required to exhibit a high sense of duty, integrity and competence within the Audit Service Code of Conduct. You must desist from acts that would bring the Service into disrepute," he said. Mr Quartey also entreated the staff to take up training programmes organized by the Service seriously and to personally embark on professional development initiatives so that they would be abreast with emerging international practice.