Corporate executives and internal auditors have been urged to prioritise corporate sustainability by focusing on long-term goals through the formulation of sustainable methods.

This would ensure that goods and services are delivered in a manner that is both environmentally friendly, and sustainable and would support the economic growth of not only businesses but of other stakeholders as well.

The call was made by the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey, at this year’s Board/ Chief Executive Officer (CEO)/Chief Audit Executive (CAE) Governance Workshop, held in Accra yesterday.

Organised by the Institute of Internal Auditors Ghana (IIA-Ghana), the event was on the theme “Elevating Corporate Sustainability.”

He noted that the lack of investment in research in the country hindered the nation’s ability to ensure creativity and development in the country.

“There was a need to remind ourselves about the importance of being self-reliant through research,” he emphasized.

He underscored the need for executives to foster collaborative efforts to achieve good corporate governance whilst supporting the internal auditors to deliver their mandates in that regard.

Speaking on cybersecurity he said the migration of most activities onto online platforms has increased cybercrimes hence the need for executives to focus on cyber threats and vulnerabilities in their systems by paying critical attention to them and exploring other means to prevent data loss.

“As boards and senior-level management members, we should review and reengineer our information technology governance strategies and deliberate more on these threats and take resolute actions accordingly, whether your enterprise resource planning is cloud-based or not, there are risk concerns that you should keep an eye on,” he said.

The Director-General of State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), Mr Edward Boateng, in a speech read on his behalf by the head of finance at SIGA, Yvonne Nanevie, commended the IIA for the workshops as it would elevate corporate sustainability.

He noted that the current global challenges have heightened the need for strong and innovative leaders to guide the country toward fiscal stability.

“Irrespective of the global conditions, we are expected to leverage available competitive advantage as leaders to stir our organisations to success,” he said.

The Director-General urged leaders to adopt technology in their day-to-day activities as it was an opportunity to increase their competitive advantage in the corporate space.

He commended government’s digitisation efforts and urged all officials to “lend their full support to the digitisation efforts in pursuit for efficiency in our organisations as many organisations have already made great strides in their digitalisation journeys.”

The president of the Institute of Internal Auditors Ghana (IIAG), Mrs. Harriet AkuaKarikari, in her remarks said the current economic crisis the country was going through was a result of bad leadership.

She explained that there was an urgent need to redefine the leadership role and search for critical and strategic leaders who would ensure the survival and growth of organisations.

The IIAG president appealed to all leaders to identify sustainable measures to deal with the current economic crisis.

She added that the Institute of Internal Auditors Ghana had won the bid to host the 2023 African Federation of Institutes of Internal Auditors (AFIIA) Conference and accompanying events in May 2023.

The conference she said would be preceded by a two-day Governance Workshop from May 22 to 23, 2023 at Movenpick Ambassador Hotel, Accra.

The main conference she said would be from May 24 to 26, 2023 at the UPSA Auditorium.