The University of Professional Studies, Accra, (UPSA), has inaugurated a new Centre for Public Accountability.<\/p>\n
The centre<\/span> will promote and enhance sound public sector accountability institutions and mechanisms in Africa by providing practitioners with the opportunity for continual learning, development, research and knowledge sharing as well as consultancy support.<\/p>\n In his welcome address, Vice Chancellor of UPSA, Professor Joshua Alabi, \u00a0said apart from becoming the leading accounting institution in the country, authorities of the University are also working to make it nationally relevant and globally recognized.<\/p>\n He said the Centre would also help bridge the gap of public accountability and urged all stakeholders to embrace it in order to fulfill its objectives.<\/p>\n Director for \u00a0the Centre for Public Accountability, Albert Kan-Dapaah underscored the importance of the Centre, saying ”accountability was one of the weakest elements of governance structure<\/span> in Ghana and the West African sub-region which accounted for high levels of corruption in the public sector.”<\/p>\n The former minister of state added that the Centre for Public Accountability sought to promote the concepts of Accountability in Public Sector Management.<\/p>\n He said the centre<\/span> would also conduct cutting-edge research into the concept of public sector accountability and build the capacity of public sector practitioners and lawmakers through highly attractive training programmes<\/span>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to build the capacity of public sector practitioners and lawmakers through highly interactive training programmes<\/span> and we want to also offer consultancy support to key accountability institutions including supreme audit institutions and public accounts committee,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Dr Kan-Dapaah also added\u00a0\u201cwe want to maintain the most accurate and reliable database on public transactions such as the public debt, petroleum revenues and expenditure and donor funds.<\/p>\n It is not our ambition to catch thieves, but we will be interested to find out how they managed to abuse the system and come out with policy recommendations to seal the loopholes,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n In his remarks, Council Chairman of UPSA, Mr Justice Nii Aryeetey said the Centre, would position UPSA as a leading tertiary- based think-tank in the provision of quality and relevant training, support to promote public sector accountability in Africa.<\/p>\n Dr. Dapaah announced that the centre has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with The Hague University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands to jointly implement a project financed by the Netherlands government to develop and deliver practice-oriented training modules in Financial Management for Finance graduates and professionals in Ghana.<\/p>\n Mr Justice Nii Aryeetey, Council Chairman of UPSA, urged all stakeholders, particularly the media, to support the laudable initiative, as they are expected to actively play their watchdog role for public sector accountability.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Evans Effah\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The University of Professional Studies, Accra, (UPSA), has inaugurated a new Centre for Public Accountability. The centre will promote and enhance sound public sector accountability institutions and mechanisms in Africa by providing practitioners with the opportunity for continual learning, development, research and knowledge sharing as well as consultancy support. In his welcome address, Vice Chancellor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":22731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[1267,1265,1266,16],"yoast_head":"\n