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Audit Objections

Inaction spikes corruption

CAG says timely action could have curbed graft significantly

Staff Correspondent
The level of corruption in the country would have been much lower had the successive governments cleared audit
objections timely, said Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Ahmed Ataul Hakeem yesterday.
"Secretaries [of different ministries] have kept vital or burning issues |of audit objections] unresolved for a long period of time," said Hakeem adding that encouraged wrongdoers to continue indulging in corruption.
Timely action against them would have resulted in a significant decrease in corruption, he said while speaking at a roundtable on the media's role as a watchdog of public financial system. The programme was organised at Brae Centre in the capital by Management and Resources Development Initiative (MRDI) and the British High Commission.
The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (OCAG) audited a number of government entities in the last couple of years and found irregularities in different accounts, said thetopbossofauditing.
But the government has failed to take punitive actions against the people responsible, even in some serious cases, despite repeated recommendations made by OCAG, said Hakeem.
The office of CAG has some limitations — shortage of staff and skilled manpower and absence of a comprehensive audit law — though it is a constitutional body and has the mandate to work independently, he said.
On why the CAG office fails to deliver the optimum level of service, he said, "We are running our office only by 40 percent of the staff required."
Referring to the shortage of skilled manpower, he said OCAG has no expert to audit bridge constructions.
However, OCAG has been working to reduce the backlog created over the years.
Since the independence, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) submitted a total of 918 audit reports prepared by OCAG to parliament.
Up to the eighth parliament, 332 reports were discussed there, while PAC placed 586 reports for discussion in the ninth parliament, out of which 293 have so far been discussed.
During the tenure of the current parliament until February, PAC and its sub-
committee held 175 meetings, a record compared to thatofother parliaments.
Speaking as the chief guest at the discussion, PAC Chairman Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir stressed the need for broader auditing, especially for a number of government bodies such as the seven city corporations, the local government and rural development sector and the defence.
Defence budgets are not discussed comprehensively in parliament due to "an evil deed" by HM Ershad during his autocratic rule, he said. Ershad had made a provision, making it non-compulsory for the defence ministry to present its expenditure elaborately to the House.
"So, it has made a room for irregularities," said Alamgir.
The chief of the parliamentary standing committee on public accounts also said an audit act will be placed in parliament in the upcoming budget session, aiming to ensure more transparency and accountability in the public financial
management. "This will be the first of its kind in the country," he noted.
In the key-note presentation, AHM Moazzem Hossain, editor of The Financial Express, said the media should raise public awareness about corruption and investigate and report incidences of corruption in a professional and ethical manner.
The media can play a positive role in promoting democracy, good governance, accountability and transparency, only if it gets a favourable environment to do so, he added.
Hasibur Rahman, executive director of MRDI, said the media and government bodies could jointly play a vital role in ensuring proper management of public funds. Civil society can also contribute to the process.
Abdul Quayum, joint editor of Bangla daily Prothom Alo; Ananya Raihan, executive director of D.Net, and Amulya Kumar Debnath, director general of Central Procurement Technical Unit also spoke at the programme.