By our Staff Writer
The Internal Audit Agency (IAA) says it has concluded a full Internal Audit Compliance Program document for crisis management, aimed at ensuring accountability for the usage of public funds and assets during crisis period.
This comes as Liberia and the world are experiencing what is considered as the worst ever health crisis—the Coronavirus pandemic, as the Liberian government is poised to inject over thirty million into an economic stimulus package as part of the fight against COVID-19.
The document, which is coined Internal Controls Programs for Public Funds during Crisis Management, seeks to ensure that internal and operational verifications are effected to curtail leakages of funds to disaster and incidence related catastrophes.
The IAA believes that said Internal Audit Compliance document will, among other things, safeguard the usage of resources and maintenance of assets granted by the Government of Liberia and foreign partners.
Part 2 section 2.2 (b) of the Act establishing the Internal Audit Agency of Liberia mandates the IAA to promulgate and ensure that common internal audit standards and systems are established and maintained,
The Internal Audit Compliance document places strong emphasis on Governance, Payroll and Personnel Management, as well as Procurement Controls. Other areas of focus are Bank Accounts and Reconciliation, Accounting and Budgetary Controls, Assets and Inventory Management, among others.
Besides, within the matrix are risks encountered, ranking for vulnerabilities and impacts together with the related controls for crisis management.
The IAA is hopeful that personnel and public servants who have been designated to manage the ongoing crisis will adequately utilize the procedures contained in the Internal Audit Compliance document to enable full accountability of public funds in crisis period.