OAG tells SOEs, universities to carry out audit by mid-Sept
Kathmandu, July 22
Public corporations and universities have been instructed to carry out audit within mid-September of this fiscal.
Office of the Auditor General (OAG) — the external auditor of the government — has directed the state-owned enterprises (SoEs) and universities, which have not carried out external audit of their accounts since long to do so within the first two months of this fiscal.
According to Ramu Prasad Dotel, assistant auditor general and spokesperson for OAG, the OAG has summoned the chiefs of the public corporations and urged them to carry out the audit of previous fiscal years. The OAG has also informed the Public Accounts Committee of the Legislature-Parliament regarding the matter.
As per OAG, Citizen Investment Trust, Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Nepal Tourism Board, Pashupati Area Development Trust, Guthi Sansthan, Nepal Food Corporation, Rastriya Beema Company Ltd, Rastriya Beema Sansthan and public universities, among others have not carried out audit since long.
“Heads of public corporations are positive about carrying out audit following the instruction of OAG,” said Dotel. However, they have to carry out audit dating back many years.
Majority of universities running under government grant also have not carried out external audit since long, according to Dotel. “Universities also have to carry out audit within the given deadline of mid-September.”
Public corporations and universities have not given due priority to external audit because of lack of clear law regarding punishment for the same. “The fact that they are avoiding external audit means there is lack of fiscal discipline,” said Dotel. “The OAG has also written to the parent ministries and monitoring agencies to penalise the organisations that do not carry out audit.”
To make the chiefs of the government offices, project chiefs and heads of the public corporations accountable for audit, the OAG has introduced a rule whereby project chiefs and head of the public corporations cannot be transferred or leave jobs without conducting external audit, even if he or she is scheduled to retire at the fiscal year-end.
This provision is expected to bring fiscal discipline in the public corporations and government offices. Dotel further said that the OAG will draw the attention of the parent ministries, monitoring agencies and even Public Accounts Committee of the Legislature-Parliament if the aforementioned agencies continue to show reluctance to carry out the audit.