The Ghana Audit Service will, in October 2026, launch an online tracker to monitor the implementation of audit recommendations.The tracker, developed in-house by the Audit Service, will show which recommendations have been implemented, those still outstanding and the reasons for delays.It will also provide information on recoverable amounts identified, pursued and recovered, as well as corrective, administrative or disciplinary measures taken.The Auditor-General, Dr Pamela Graham, said this at the launch of the 2026 financial year audit in Accra on Tuesday (September 29, 2026)She said the tracker would also identify weaknesses in public institutions that continued to expose public funds to risk.“An audit report is the beginning of action, not the end,” she said.GH¢280.5m surchargeIt comes at a time the Chairperson of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Abena Osei-Asare, says a total of GH¢280.5 million in surcharges following audit reports remains unpaid.Ms Osei-Asare said information from the Audit Service showed that GH¢280.5 million in surcharges remained uncollected.She said about GH¢57.2 million had been collected through the Auditor-General’s recovery accounts since 2022, as of February 2026.Ms Osei-Asare also said the 2025 reports on ministries, departments and agencies recorded financial irregularities of about GH¢5.2 billion, of which GH¢4.8 billion related to tax irregularities.“Finding the problem is not enough. Reporting is also not enough. Even debating on it in Parliament is not enough. There must be a follow-through,” she said.Audit recoveryThe Auditor-General said the Audit Service had recovered GH¢17.6 billion and saved the country about GH¢11.7 billion in wrongful payments.She said the Service would conduct interim audits at selected institutions to identify problems early and reduce the accumulation of prior-year adjustments.The Service would also expand its use of data analytics and forensic tools, while using artificial intelligence under appropriate controls, she said.Where data permitted, Dr Graham said the Service would move from analysing limited samples to examining entire populations.She said a correspondence management system, also developed in-house, would be used to handle submissions from audited entities.Dr Graham outlined five areas for the 2026 audit cycle, namely continuous engagement, timeliness, technology, people and impact.She also reminded covered entities of the six-month deadline for submitting reports to Parliament under Article 187(5) of the 1992 Constitution.She commended covered entities, including some state-owned enterprises, which had submitted their financial statements on time and urged those behind schedule to do so.Disallowance and surchargeDr Graham said she would exercise the Auditor-General’s constitutional powers of disallowance and surcharge where expenditure was found to have been incurred contrary to law.She said persons facing surcharge were first issued a notice of intention and given 14 days to respond.Where the response was unsatisfactory, a disallowance and surcharge certificate would be served, with copies sent to the relevant institution and the Attorney-General.The person surcharged would then have 60 days to appeal against the amount.“Every cedi lost through weak controls, unlawful expenditure, inefficiency or failure to act is a cedi withheld from education, healthcare, infrastructure, social protection,” she said.Make misappropriation unprofitableThe Presidential Advisor on the National Anti-Corruption Programme, Professor Francis Dodoo, who chaired the launch, urged the Audit Service to set surcharge rates above the returns that misappropriated funds could earn on the market.He gave a hypothetical example in which GH¢10 million was misappropriated and discovered two years later, when Treasury bill rates stood at 28 per cent.He said recovering only the principal would leave the person who misappropriated the money with GH¢5.6 million in interest.“Isn’t that an investment or a lottery that anybody would be willing to try?” he asked.Prof. Dodoo repeated figures he said he presented in Kumasi at the end of April, which indicated that Ghana lost GH¢100 billion through financial irregularities over six years.He said annual losses rose from GH¢8.8 billion in 2023 to GH¢18.4 billion in 2024.About a quarter of the 2024 losses, he said, were cash irregularities, while GH¢8.1 billion in expenditure claims were rejected by the Auditor-General as attributable to fictitious debt.He asked the Audit Service to provide the corresponding figures for 2025.COVID-era auditsProf. Dodoo also referred to recent reports that the Audit Service might not have reported on some audits conducted during the COVID-19 period.He said he understood that the matter initially emerged through the work of journalist Manasseh Azure.He said the development “stands the potential of undermining public confidence big time” and asked the Audit Service to investigate and explain what happened, why it happened and, where necessary, what should be done about the accounts and persons involved.He also cautioned against leniency towards offenders.“Whose friend have you been?” he asked, arguing that shielding wrongdoers harmed the public.