Accra, April 15, GNA - The President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Mr. Ransford Tetteh on Tuesday said there could not be an effective fight against corruption without the involvement of the media. At a day's seminar held for the media to build their knowledge on the role of the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) in Accra, he said government and the larger society must accept the watchdog role of the media in promoting public accountability and good governance and also give them the necessary protection to carry out the onerous responsibility at all times. The Internal Audit Agency was established by Act 658 of 2003 to primarily ensure financial discipline and accountability in the public sector as well as secure quality assurance of the internal audit

activities within state institutions. Mr. Tetteh argued that the people could only hold the government accountable if they knew what the government was doing, adding that the media played the role of political accountability and checks-and-balances, keeping an eye on public officers and institutions and constantly challenging them through interviews and debates, among others. He, however, cautioned the media to criticize in faith to ensure improvement in the prevailing situation rather than maligning people in search of social and economic emancipation. Mr. Tetteh said the effectiveness of the media depended on access to information as well as freedom of expression and reiterated the call on government to expedite action on the Freedom of Information Bill to improve access to information and further expand the frontiers of free expression and a free press.

Giving an overview of the operations of the Agency, Mr. Thomas Abaidoo, Training and Capacity Development Manager, said sine the IAA's take-off in 2005, the agency had, among other things, facilitated the recruitment of internal audit staff in Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) and District Assemblies and trained Internal Audit staff. The vision of the agency, he said, was to establish professional internal auditing systems for the effective and efficient monitoring of the acquisition, custody and utilization of public resources. Mr Abaidoo said, in carrying out its functions it was guided by other statutes such as Financial Administrational Act, Public Procurement Act, Financial Administration Regulations and the enabling Acts establishing the particular public institutions.

The Director-General of IAA, Mr. Patrick Nomo, said his outfit considered the media as a very important stakeholder and partner in the development of the nation and attainment of the goals and objectives of the Agency. He said, it was therefore critical that the media had a full understanding of the work of the IAA in order to enhance the performance of the media's agenda setting and watchdog role as well as strategise on how best the IAA in collaboration with the media can promote accountability and good governance.