Monrovia -  

I have been challenged by the young and hard working reformed oriented AG of Liberia and I become ever resolute and ignited to sternly put my feet down as he has done in the fight for transparency and accountability in his country Liberia”, Auditor General for the Federal Republic of Nigeria  Joseph Oloyede Ajiboye bathing praises and heartfelt compliments on Auditor General John S.Morlu II at the just ended Forum of Accountants - General and Auditors General in West Africa (FAAGWA);held in Abuja, Nigeria  last week.

“If we had more person like the Auditor General of Liberia, definitely Africa would have transcended beyond the aged corruption virus”, Accountant General of Nigeria Alhaji Ibrahim H. Dankwambo and President of FAAGWA noted.

“If we had ten persons like the Auditor General of Liberia, West Africa in particular and Africa in general, we would have made significant progress to purge the Continent of Africa from its greatest enemy of progress and development, corruption”, those were the words from the Gambia delegation.

 Winston Cole, Senior Financial Management Specialist, World Bank: If I had the power and authority vested in me, surely I would have selected the Auditor General of Liberia to be the Auditor General of West Africa.”

Those were bundle of compliments unleashed on AG Morlu climaxed by wide thunderous applause in the conference hall by accountants and auditors general of West Africa and delegates from other parts of Africa.

In a twelve-page power point presentation by AG Morlu under the topic “Strengthening the Capacity of Supreme Audit Institutions: Lesson from the General Auditing Commission of Liberia”, Morlu, among other issues, catalogued the initial tempestuous time he and the GAC rumbled and wrestled through to reach the level of respectability and a meaningful icon for ensuring fiscal propriety through the prevention of waste, abuse of resources and fraud in post war Liberia.

“GAC is gradually making significant impact in Liberia. Public officials since we started to audit are now aware that there are limited opportunities for them to greedily siphon public monies as they were so often used to do. We named names of corrupt public officials in our audit reports not just their positions as it is done by some of the auditors general here. We must name, shame and blame people who engage in acts of corruption,” AG Morlu averred.

John Morlu: Once it comes to public monies there is no secrecy. The taxpayers must know how public officials use their monies. Auditing institutions must disconnect from the outmoded tendency of making audit reports to be a secret document between the auditees and the auditors. They must be published as we do on our website. They must be distributed to the Civil Society Organizations as we do. The press, religious community and possibly every single taxpayer whose money is under threat from those delegated and entrusted with public monies, must have copies or must know about audit findings.”

Amid intermittent thunderous rounds of clapping and approbation often in  mid speech ,Auditor General Morlu explained that Auditors General should never being seen as protecting Government at the same time seen as enemy of government rather as an independent pillar of transparency and accountability working for the overall good of the public.

He advised his fellow auditors  and accountants general  that auditors general are measured by the quality of the work produced  and  to survive as an Auditor General ,you must live a solitary life; keeping your distance from all and concentrate your time and effort to professionally do your job to the letter.

He stressed on the independence of an Auditor General, emphasizing that the independence of an AG is far more important than losing a job.

AG Morlu: Supreme Auditing Institutions should not subject their work to the dictates of the Minister of Finance through the budgeting and expenditure process. Do not run after the Minister of Finance and parliament for a big budget. Do what you can with what you have. This will require creating a Risk Index (risk profiling) institutions and transactions with your mandate and then target to audit the ones that are strategically important and those that provide the maximum potential impact.

He further noted that auditors general, as auditing standards require, should be responsible for the independence, competency and integrity of all those who worked under him/he and must insist to their governments that auditing standards imposed on the them to be able to hire and dismiss .

AG Morlu then concluded that auditing is principally aimed at ensuring that transactions in Government are legal, transparent, accountable and value for money. He said Supreme Auditing Institutions should not just limit themselves to auditing,  but like GAC, should also provide review, compliance and advisory services as well as agreed upon procedure(TOR based) services.

Scores of high profile personalities attended the forum , including Dr.Mansur Muhtar, Finance Minister of Nigeria.

Dr.Muhtar, delivering the key note address told the participants that public financial system is one of the critical success factors for driving the process of economic growth and development and an important ingredient of good governance.

The Forum of Accountants-General and Auditors-General in West Africa (FAAGWA) is a non political Organization formed by the Association of Accounting  Bodies in West Africa(ABWA) to promote good governance in member countries sound accounting and auditing reporting systems. The membership of the Forum is made up of all Accountants-General and Auditors General of the ECOWAS member countries.

The last time the Auditor General of the Republic of Liberia, John S.Morlu was invited to serve in similar capacity was in Norway where he provided insight on the framework or model for Level 1-3 standards. He used GAC as a model by the establishment of a communication and governmental and legal departments.

GAC delegation also comprises Mrs. Gloria Valhum Director of Office Staff, Office of the Auditor General, Ernest S.Maximore, Director of Communications, Edwin H.Harris, Director of Governmental Affairs, Heneson Kollie, Senior Audit Manager and Archie Valmah of Public Debt.