Ghana places first in Open Government Partnership member nations

Ghana placed first out of 10 Open Government Partnership (OGP) members, who won awards at the 2023 Open Government Global Summit held in Tallinn, Estonia on 6th and 7th September 2023.

The OGP is a multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from national and sub-national governments to promote open government, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.

A statement issued by the Internal Audit Agency, copied to the Ghana News Agency, said Mr. Yaw Osafo Maafo, the Senior Presidential Advisor, and Dr Eric Oduro Osae, Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency, received the award for Ghana.

It said to recognise reformers at the forefront of advancing open governance, an award for “Inspirational Reforms” was launched by the OGP.

The statement said 47 applications were received from its members across the world out of which 10 winners emerged.

It noted that the Internal Audit Agency took the top position out of the 10 winners with an application on the topic “Public Accounts Committee and Audit Reports.”
It said the award was won on the theme: “Anti-corruption”.

The statement said Ghana through the Internal Audit Agency’s initiative had taken great strides towards combating corrupt practices in the public sector.

It said the establishment of Audit committees and its role in ensuring effective implementation of audit recommendations, naming and shaming of defaulters of audit report submission in the country’s newspapers, and the prosecution of cases of financial irregularities has enhanced accountability, transparency, and financial management in the country’s public sector.

The winners by rank: Ghana, Brazil, Indonesia, Portugal, Tarkwa-Nsuaem, Ghana; Nandi-Kenya; Glasgow, UK; Aragon, Spain; Contagem, Brazil; and Yerevan, Armenia.