Introduction

Comptroller and Auditor-General constitutionally appointed by the President. As per Article

127(1) of the Constitution of Bangladesh, the first Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) was
appointed on 11 May 1973. In Indian subcontinent the first comptroller and auditor general was
appointed in 1858 by the governor general. Later, according to the amendment of the
Constitution made in 1919, the next comptroller and auditor general was appointed by the
Secretary of State for India. The overall responsibility and jurisdiction of the comptroller and
auditor general is determined by the Government of India Act, 1935. In Pakistan, the post of
comptroller and auditor-general was created by the Pakistan (Audit and Accounts) Order 1952,
and in accordance with the constitutional rules appended in Articles 191 to 197 of the
Constitution of 1962. The responsibility, tenure and conditions of service of this post were
specifically pursued.

After the liberation of Bangladesh, the post of the accountant general of East Pakistan under the
comptroller and auditor general of Pakistan was transformed into the accountant general of
Bangladesh by an order of the budget department of the Ministry of Finance.

According to Article 129 of the Constitution, the CAG will remain in his office till he attains 60
years of age, and cannot be dismissed without the same procedure and reasons adopted in
dismissing a Justice of Supreme Court. He may resign from his post by tendering a resignation
letter to the President. But after retirement from service, either on completion of tenure of service
or resignation or removal, he will not be eligible for any appointment in any post of the republic.

If, at any time, the post of the CAG falls vacant, or if, due to his absence, sickness or any other
reason, it appears to the President that the concerned person is unable to perform his task, then
the President can appoint any other person as temporary CAG under Article 130 till any new
appointment is made under Article 127 of the Constitution. As the holder of a constitutional post,
the salary and other benefits of the CAG of Bangladesh is determined by the Comptroller and
Auditor General (Salary and Special benefits) Ordinance 1976.

Subject to the provisions of Article 127(2) of the Constitution and any Act passed by the Jatiya
Sangsad, the service conditions of the CAG are determined by the President. Moreover, the
duties, responsibilities and powers of the CAG in maintaining public accounts and conducting
audit of accounts of all government authorities, organizations and local government authorities,
have been specifically defined in the Comptroller and Auditor General (Additional functions)
Act 1974 and in the Comptroller and Auditor General (Additional functions) Amendment Act
1975.

The CAG conducts the audit through nine separate and self contained audit directorates under the
Bangladesh Audit Department. These are : Commercial Audit Directorate; Local and Revenue
Audit Directorate; Public Works Audit Directorate; Defence Audit Directorate; Railway Audit
Directorate; Post Telegraph and Telephone Audit Directorate; Foreign Aided Project Audit
Directorate; Foreign Mission Audit Directorate; and Civil Audit Directorate. The three chief
accounts offices which discharge constitutional responsibility regarding the accounts of the
republic and who work under the direct supervision and guidance of the CAG are : (a)
Accountant General, Civil Accounts, ie co-ordination accounts of the republic; (b) Controller
General, Defence Finance Accounts; (c) Additional Director General (Finance) of Bangladesh
Railway Accounts.

As per provision of Article 132 of the Constitution, the CAG submits the reports of the accounts
of the republic to the President through the proper channel. The President then places them
before the Jatiya Sangsad.

The freedom of the CAG in executing his responsibility is approved in accordance with Article
128(4) of the Constitution. But for administrative affairs such as the sanctioning of budget
allotments and workers management, he is dependent on the executive department of the
government, ie the finance department of the Ministry of Finance. [Mahmudul Huq Bhuiyan]

Constitutional Mandate

Establishment of office of Auditor-General

(1) There shall be a Comptroller and Auditor-General of Bangladesh (hereinafter referred to as

the Auditor-General) who shall be appointed by the President.
(2) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution and of any law made by Parliament, the
conditions of service of the Auditor-General shall be such as the President may, by order,
determine.

Functions of Auditor-General

(1) The public accounts of the Republic and of all courts of law and all authorities and officers of
the Government shall be audited and reported on by the Auditor-General and for that purpose he
or any person authorised by him in that behalf shall have access to all records, books, vouchers,
documents, cash, stamps, securities, stores or other government property in the possession of any
person in the service of the Republic.

(2) Without prejudice to the provisions of clause (1), if it is prescribed by law in the case of any
body corporate directly established by law, the accounts of that body corporate shall be audited
and reported on by such person as may be so prescribed.

(3) Parliament may by law require the Auditor-General to exercise such functions, in addition to
those specified in clause (1), as such law may prescribe, and until provision is made by law
under this clause the President may, by order, make such provision.

(4) The Auditor-General, in the exercise of his functions under clause (1), shall not be subject to
the direction or control of any other person or authority.

Term of office of Auditor-General

(1) The Auditor-General shall, subject to the provisions of this article, hold office for five years
from the date on which he entered upon his office, or until he attains the age of sixty five years,
whichever is earlier.

(2) The Auditor-General shall not be removed from his office except in like manner and on the
like ground as a judge of the Supreme Court.

(3) The Auditor-General may resign his office by writing under his hand addressed to the
President.

(4) On ceasing to hold office the Auditor-General shall not be eligible for further office in the
service of the Republic.

Acting Auditor-General

At any time when the office of Auditor-General is vacant, or the President is satisfied that the
Auditor-General is unable to perform his functions on account of absence, illness or any other
cause, the President may appoint a person to act as Auditor-General and to perform the functions
of that office until an appointment is made under article 127 or, as the case may be until the
Auditor-General resumes the functions of his office.
Form and manner of keeping public accounts

The public accounts of the Republic shall be kept in such form and in such manner as the
Auditor-General may, with the approval of the President, prescribe.

Reports of Auditor-General to be laid before Parliament

The reports of the Auditor-General relating to the Reports of public accounts of the Republic
shall be submitted to the President, who shall cause them to be laid before Parliament.

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
organisation 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 financial audit performed by the OCAG attempts to evaluate whether the financial statements
of public sector entities are fairly stated in accordance with Accounting Standards. The OCAG is
developing capacity to become fully compliant with International Standards of Supreme Audit
Institutions (ISSAI's).

Compliance 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, rules and regulations. The
OCAG is developing capacity to become fully compliant with International Standards of
Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI's).

Performance audit

With the increasing realisation 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 scrutinising 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 organisations and has recognised the necessity of international
collaboration for excellence.
Separation of the Accounts from Audit Cadre

As mentioned previously the need for broader role of accounts and audit function should start
with redefining the roles and responsibility of accounting and audit institutions, strengthening the
CGA function, aligning Ministries’ FM and accounting function with the changed structure, and
placing CAOs and as appropriate the FAs under their respective new cadre as appropriate.

In restructuring of accounting functions, it is proposed that: CAOs are located in the Ministry
and the office of the CAO is placed directly under the CAG but linked to the line ministry on
dedicated basis; FAs and CIAs and all sub-ordinate officers should be posted by the Finance
Division in consultation with concerned Secretaries for the foreseeable future. It is most
important that the FA has the full confidence of the PAO.The above however would not preclude
transfers between audit and accounts staff to perform accounting and audit functions. It would
however lay the basis for separation of BCS (Audit & Accounts) Cadre into two distinct
professional cadres. This is because of the revised and enhanced role of the services which
existing personnel are unable to perform under the combined cadre. The measures relating to the
establishment of the necessary accounting infrastructure and removing the anomalies in the
existing accounting and audit services is a prerequisite separation of the existing cadre is
initiated.

Some observations

1. The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (OCAG) can help the government better
fight financial irregularities involving taxpayer money if it is equipped with adequate workforce
and administrative assistance.

2. If the government spends more in order to strengthen the OCAG, it will be able to recover
more money for the government, because there is a strong reason to believe that potential and
high value financial irregularities are remaining hidden in the invoices not scrutinised by the
auditors.
3. The OCAG is responsible for auditing government receipts and public spending and
ascertaining whether expenditures have yielded value for money in government offices, public
bodies and statutory organisations.

4. Alongside a traditional approach to carry out financial, compliance or regularity audits, the
office is now conducting performance audit to determine efficiency and effectiveness in the
management of public resources.

5. The auditors particularly look into high value and risky organisations where they have reason
to believe that financial expenditures are not taking place in a proper way.

6. The constitutional body sent a proposal of a time-befitting manpower structure to the

government nearly three years ago, which is still under consideration.

7. Every year the country sees growth in its development and revenue budgets, but the workforce
at the OCAG doesn't increase accordingly.

8. In recent years, the use of IT has gone up in government offices. As a result, the scope for the
IT audit has also increased. To keep pace with the auditees, the OCAG has created a core IT
audit group.

9. The work of the OCAG has speeded up in recent years. The accounting system of the auditee
organisations also requires to be automated.

10. The World Bank and several other development partners are providing financial assistance to
the OCAG to update its audit and accounting manuals, helping speed up its work.

Conclusion

The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (OCAG), the Supreme Audit Institution
(SAI) of Bangladesh is responsible for auditing government receipts and public spending and to
ascertain whether expenditures have yielded value for money in government offices, public
bodies and statutory organisations. Appointed by the President of the Republic, the Comptroller
and Auditor General (CAG) heads the Supreme Audit Institution. The CGA for instance would
henceforth be responsible mainly for functional guidance to all accounting personnel as well as
executive control of CAOs and for the compilation of Government wide Financial Statements
from information provided by CAOs and others as distinct from overseeing the daily operating
responsibilities of line Ministries associated with pre-audit and preparation of Ministry level
management accounts and their periodic Financial Statements. These latter responsibilities
would henceforth rest mainly with the Drawing and Disbursement Officers under the purview of
the respective Financial Advisor of the line Ministry. CAG has the mandate to determine the
scope and extent of audit. 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.
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