Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, Bangladesh
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The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh (C&AG) is the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) of the country. Like the SAIs in many other countries across the world such as the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the institution is established by the Constitution of Bangladesh. This institute is responsible for maintaining accounts of the republic and audits all receipts and expenditure of the Government of Bangladesh, including those of bodies and authorities substantially financed by the government. The reports of the CAG are discussed by the Public Accounts Committee, which is a standing committee in the Parliament of Bangladesh.
In more recent times, in addition to carrying out the traditional approach of conducting financial audits and compliance audits, the office of the comptroller and auditor general Bangladesh has introduced performance audits, which focus on evaluating economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the management of public resources of different government entities.
Contents
Vision
The vision of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh represents what it strives to achieve in the long run. The vision of the office is attaining accountability and transparency in public financial management for achieving good governance.
Mission
The mission of the organization describes its current role; in other words, it gives information about what it is doing today. The mission of the office is conducting effective audit of public sector operations for optimum utilization of public resources providing reliable and objective information to assist in establishing accountability and transparency in government activities.
Constitutional mandate
The Constitution of Bangladesh provides the CAG of the country with absolute independence; hence, he is not answerable to any other authority to gain access to all documents required while conducting an audit. Article 127-132 of the constitution of the country illustrates the establishment, functions, terms of office and so on of the Auditor General.
Current CAG
Masud Ahmed is the current CAG of Bangladesh. He did BA (Hons.) and MA in English from University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is trained in various fields of auditing in India, Singapore and U.S.A. He also served as a Secretary, Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs as well as Member of Planning Commission.
Former CAGs
- Late Fazle Kader Muhammad Abdul Baqui (May 11, 1973 to Dec 31, 1975)
- Osman Ghani Khan (March 1, 1976 to Dec 31, 1982)
- A K Azizul Huq (Jan 1, 1983 to March 29, 1989)
- Golam Kibria (March 30, 1989 to Dec 31, 1991)
- Khondkar Moazzamuddin Hossain (March 7, 1992 to March 29, 1996)
- M. Hafizuddin Khan (April 3, 1996 to Aug 7, 1999)
- Syed Yusuf Hossain (Aug 8, 1999 to Feb 4, 2002)
- Muhammad Ahsan Ali Sarkar (March 5, 2002 to Dec 31, 2002)
- Asif Ali (Jan 2, 2003 to Jan 1, 2008)
- Ahmed Ataul Hakeem ( Feb 12, 2008 to Feb 11, 2013)
Functional areas
At present, there are ten different Audit Directorates, carrying out audits on behalf of the CAG in the government offices and the public sector entities. Each of the Directorates is headed by a Director General. Audit observations involving considerable financial anomalies are primarily included into Advance Paras (AP). Later considering adequately the responses of the auditee organization and the concerned Principal Accounting Officer (often the concerned Secretary of the Ministry) Advanced Paras might be transformed into Draft Paras (DP). The DPs form part of the audit reports if it is justified and approved by the CAG of Bangladesh. The audit directorates are:
- Commercial Audit Directorate
- Local and Revenue Audit Directorate
- Civil Audit Directorate
- Works Audit Directorate
- Foreign Aided Project Audit Directorate
- Railway Audit Directorate
- Post, Telegraph and Telephone Audit Directorate
- Defence Audit Directorate
- Mission Audit Directorate
- Performance Audit Directorate
Activities
Financial audit
A compliance audit performed by the OCAG attempts to evaluate whether the activities of public sector entities are in compliance with the relevant existing laws, regulations. More specifically, a financial audit of a particular government entity involves assessing the degree of conformity of the audited entity in following existing rules, laws and regulation, and so on.
Performance audit
With the increasing realization of the necessity to appraise the three E’s – Economy, Effectiveness and Efficiency – of the public resources used, OCAG incorporated performance audits in recent years. In addition to the traditional compliance audits, Performance Audit was launched by OCAG to make sure the accountability of the executive to the Parliament and, in effect, to the taxpayers.
Public Accounts Committee (PAC)
The Comptroller and Auditor General in compliance with the Rules of Business submits the audit reports to the president of the country after apprising the Prime Minister. The Auditor General’s reports are later discussed by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Parliament.
The PAC’s activities involve scrutinizing important observations and comments of the Auditor General’s reports while giving hearing to the concerned officials. The outcome of the PAC meetings includes the responses of the ministries and executive agencies along with the recommendations of the Committee, which is often considered obligatory to the executive departments to conform. OCAG generally has a role to enable the PAC to function effectively. It almost throughout the time gives the necessary support to the PAC.
Human resources
The skill and academic background of the OCAG staff is varied with the managerial staff of the office boosting diverse expertise. The diversity is often considered to be of great use in carrying out audit activities of the office. At present, approximately four thousand officers and staff are working in the OCAG, and an estimated thirteen percent of the total workforce is women. However, the female representation in the staff level is considerably higher than that in the managerial level.
Financial Management Academy (FIMA)
Financial Management Academy (FIMA) is the training wing of OCAG Bangladesh, the supreme audit institution of the country. This Academy is established aiming at providing the much needed know- how to enhance professionalism of both the officers and staff of Audit and Accounts Department. The responsibility of the institute is to add value to the skills of the employees of the department. The institution offers necessary auditing, accounting and financing knowledge to the employees of the department in an effort to ensure sound financial management of the country.
International co-operation
OCAG Bangladesh, the supreme audit institution of the country, is an active member of Asian Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI) and International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) for a long period now. SAI Bangladesh is fully committed to the goals of these organizations and has recognized the necessity of international collaboration for excellence.
