Tamale: The Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) has urged journalists to prioritise simplifying the complex findings of the Auditor-General's Reports to make them easily understandable for the public and to strengthen accountability.
According to Ghana News Agency, Mrs Beauty Emefa Nartey, the Executive Secretary of GACC, emphasized the crucial role of the media in ensuring transparency and accountability during a two-day training workshop in Tamale. The workshop was aimed at selected journalists from Northern Ghana to enhance their understanding of the 2024 Auditor-General's Reports and equip them with practical skills for investigative reporting on the findings and recommendations.
The training, organized by GACC in collaboration with the Ghana Audit Service, is part of the 'Building Evidence for Increased Accountability in Ghana through a Multi-stakeholder Accountability Initiative' project funded by the Hewlett Foundation. Mrs Nartey pointed out that the Auditor-General's Reports are vital sources of evidence regarding public fund management but often receive limited media coverage and follow-up.
She highlighted that the media rarely reports on the content of these reports, despite their importance in exposing corruption and irregularities in public fund usage. Without continuous scrutiny by journalists, many issues in the reports risk being ignored, allowing financial misconduct to go unpunished.
Mrs Nartey stressed the necessity for the media to simplify the reports so that the public can easily understand them. Such efforts would raise awareness and pressure duty bearers to implement corrective measures. She urged journalists to view themselves as intermediaries between technical content and ordinary citizens, using their platforms to expose corruption and demand accountability.
Mrs Nartey further encouraged the media to move beyond event reporting and adopt investigative journalism that ensures responsible agencies act on the Auditor-General's recommendations. Mrs Fredrick Lokko, an Assistant Director of Audit at the Ghana Audit Service, explained that the Service's constitutional role involves ensuring financial discipline in public institutions, proposing solutions to irregularities, and not just auditing government accounts.
Mr Lokko also stressed the importance of effective collaboration with the media to ensure audit findings are communicated to the public and lead to real accountability.
