Ghana is one of the 33 nations, out of 118 in the world whose Auditor-General has Substantial Independence, the World Bank’s maiden Supreme Audit Institutions Independence Index has revealed.

This means that the Auditor General of the county has considerably high independence to carry out his mandate without undue interference.

Ghana scored about 8.5 out of the total marks of 10 after several independence indicators were met.

The nation was among 33 countries that were classified in that category. Some of the countries in the same group as Ghana were Albania, Chile, Jamaica, Mauritius and Morocco.

10 indicators were assessed including constitutional and legal framework, financial autonomy, access to records and information as well as right and obligation on audit reporting.

In Sub Saharan Africa, the highest scoring indicators were access to audit scope autonomy and the right and obligation on audit reporting in which Ghana scored full marks.

The lowest scoring indicators were financial autonomy, followed by staffing autonomy.

Former Auditor General, Daniel Yao Domelovo, played a key role in the report as the Betton Wood institution acknowledge him for the important role he played in the assessment.

The World Bank said results from this maiden Supreme Audit Independence Index demonstrates that much needs to be done to meet the aspirations of the 1977 Lima Declaration, which called for the full independence of Supreme Audit Institutions.

It said government auditing is critical to provide an objective assessment of government programmes, policies, operations, and results to detect whether public resources are managed responsibly and to instill confidence among citizens and stakeholders.

Only South Africa and Seychelles met all the independence indicators and scored 10, ranking “very high” independence.

The index assessed Auditor Generals of 118 nations.