How to choose an audit firm in Ghana

Section 138 of the Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992) sets who may be appointed. The auditor must be qualified and licensed as a chartered accountant, and must not be disqualified. The disqualifications include being an officer of the company or of an associated company, or a partner or employee of such an officer. A person who acts as auditor without being qualified commits an offence, and the company and its officers in default face an administrative penalty.

Section 139 sets how the appointment is made:

• The auditor must consent in writing before being appointed.
• The appointment is made by ordinary resolution of the shareholders, whatever the company's constitution says. The directors may appoint the first auditors and fill a casual vacancy.
• Before accepting, the incoming auditor must write to the retiring auditor and ask for any representations and information about the company.
• The company must notify the Registrar of any change of auditor within 14 days.

That limit shapes the choice as much as anything else. The firm you appoint now can serve for six years at most, so ask how it would hand over cleanly at the end of the term as well as how it would start.

Ask each firm for its ICAG practice licence number and check it against the list of licensed firms in good standing that the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana publishes each year. A licence is renewed annually, so check the current list rather than last year's.

The same list places each firm in a category, from A1 and A down to D. ICAG classification bands are set by reference to firm revenue, so a band indicates the scale of a practice rather than the quality of its work. A larger firm is not automatically the better auditor for your company. What decides that is the partner who will sign, the team who will do the work, and how well they understand your business and its risks.

One more check is worth making. The Fifth Schedule to the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana Act, 2020 (Act 1058) treats performing external audit assignments in the name of a limited liability company as professional misconduct. The audit should be accepted and signed by a licensed firm of chartered accountants and its partners.

Some companies need more than an ICAG licence from their auditor.

• Listed companies and other capital market entities. The Securities and Exchange Commission publishes a list of audit firms registered to provide capital market services. The current list runs from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. Check that the firm is on it before its appointment is proposed.
• Banks, insurers, pension schemes and other regulated entities. Sector regulators can set their own requirements for who audits the entities they supervise. Ask the firm to confirm in writing that it meets them for your company.
• NGOs and donor-funded programmes. Funding agreements often specify the audit, the reporting template and sometimes the type of firm. Read the agreement before you shortlist.

Independence rules can take a firm out of the running however good its proposal is, so check them first. Under the Fifth Schedule to Act 1058, an auditor may not accept an audit of an entity within two years of having provided it with any of these services:

• accounting and bookkeeping;
• consultancy to create financial systems or accounting manuals;
• consultancy to prepare budgets;
• any other service whose fees would significantly exceed the audit fee, to the extent that independence could be compromised.

Tell every firm you approach what other work it, or anyone connected to it, has done for the company, and when. A different staff member doing the work does not remove the restriction. Ask each firm to confirm its independence in writing before you look at price.

Fees can only be compared if every firm quotes on the same information. Put together a short brief and send the same version to each firm:

• The latest financial statements, a description of the business and its main reporting risks.
• The financial reporting framework and who will rely on the audited accounts: shareholders, lenders, a regulator or a funder.
• The deadline that matters most, whether statutory, group, lender or regulatory.
• An honest description of the state of the records and any preparation work still outstanding.
• The current auditor, when they were first appointed, and any other services bought from the firms being approached.
• The entities and locations in scope.

A quotation based on reconciled accounts for one entity cannot be compared with one that assumes preparation work and several locations. The brief is what makes the comparison fair.

Ask to meet the engagement partner who will sign the opinion and the manager who will run the audit day to day, not only the people presenting the proposal. Then ask them:

• How they would approach the issues that matter in your business, such as inventory, revenue on long contracts, group reporting or related party transactions.
• Who reviews difficult judgements, and how the firm consults on technical questions.
• How much of the partner's and manager's time is built into the fee.
• What happens to the timetable if a key member of their team is unavailable.

Record the answers against the brief. Take references only with the client's permission, and expect firms to keep their other clients' affairs confidential.

Put the proposals side by side on one sheet:

• Licence number and the date you checked it, and any sector registration you need.
• Independence confirmation, and any earlier services with their dates.
• The engagement partner and manager, and their experience in your sector.
• The report or reports proposed, and the timetable to a signed opinion.
• The assumptions behind the timetable, especially about the state of your records.
• The fee, what it includes, and how extra work would be agreed and charged.

An audit fee should state its scope and its assumptions. Check travel, additional entities, group reporting, tax work and any preparation assistance. A low quote with unclear exclusions is hard to judge, because the exclusions are where the cost moves. There is no official scale of audit fees in Ghana.

1. The incoming firm writes to the current auditor. Act 992 requires it, and Act 1058 treats accepting without that prior written communication as professional misconduct. Give your current auditor permission to reply.
2. The incoming firm checks the appointment is lawful. Under Act 1058 it must first establish that the company has met the legal requirements for appointing its auditor.
3. The firm consents in writing, before it is appointed.
4. The shareholders appoint by ordinary resolution. The directors can appoint the first auditors and fill a casual vacancy.
5. You agree an engagement letter and an information timetable, so both sides know what is needed and when.
6. The company notifies the Registrar within 14 days, and keeps a record of the appointment date for the six-year limit.

Write down briefly why the directors chose the firm they did. It helps the next time the appointment comes up, and it shows the choice was made on the evidence.

• Treating the ICAG category as a quality ranking. It measures the size of the practice. Check that the licence and any sector registration cover your company, then judge the people and the approach.
• Assessing only the presentation team. The partner and manager who will actually do the work are the ones to meet.
• Expecting a firm to audit its own recent bookkeeping. The two-year rule in Act 1058 applies whoever did the work.
• Comparing fees built on different assumptions. One brief sent to every firm avoids it.
• Asking for a clean opinion to be promised. The opinion depends on the evidence. A firm that promises the outcome before the audit is not one to appoint.
• Forgetting the six-year limit. Keep the appointment history, so the next change can be planned well before the term ends.