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All the ministries, with the exception of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, have failed to produce their end-of-year financial statements. This is because mechanisms to ensure this are not working as they should, according to Mr. Albert Kan-Dapaah, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament. �The situation has resulted in high levels of corruption in the country�s public service,� he said in Accra yesterday, at the opening of this year�s induction course for newly-qualified accountants. The three-day course was never organized by the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICA) Ghana for 270 newly registered accountants. Mr. Kan-Dapaah said there was so much corruption in the system because accountability mechanisms to check it simply did not exist. He said the public were, therefore, right in questioning what accountants in the country were doing and demand accountability of them. �It is also not sufficient to say accountant are shying away from the public service because the salaries there are not good; we have very good accountants, there,� he said, and called on the ICA and all the other relevant bodies to join forces to look at how best to address the issues raised. He said it was impossible to run away from the challenges that came with the job of the accountant, adding that it was important to respect the ethical values such as honesty, objectivity and integrity�. Mr. Kan-Dapaah, one-time president of the ICA, advised the newly qualified accountants to learn from the seniors and never forget the collective interests of the profession. The president of ICA Ghana, Mr. Joseph Odartey Blankson, said the Institute had over the past years organized induction programmes as a means of assimilating persons who had passed the qualifying examinations and completed the required practical training. The induction, he explained, was aimed at equipping the inductees with the requisite knowledge, skills and abilities which would place them in positions where they cold contribute their quota to national development. �A distinguishing mark of the profession is its acceptance of the responsibility to act in the public interest,� he said, and added that responsibility of members of the Institute was not exclusively to satisfy the needs of individual clients, but to act in the public interest. In pursuit of that mandate, the ICA, had adopted and implemented global professional standards and code of ethics, for accountants in the country. Mr. Blankson said the Institute was also in discussion with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Controller and Accountant General and the Auditor-General for the adoption of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPAS).