In an exclusive report the Business Recorder has revealed that the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) has moved a summary to the Ministry of Finance for establishing a private limited company with the objective of maintaining accurate financial records of the federal, provincial and district governments.
Pakistan audit and account maintenance services operated under the 1973 Constitution, more specifically under Articles 144 to 176, until fairly recently; wherein the functions and powers of the Auditor General were defined as not only maintaining accounts but also auditing the same accounts.
This, so argued critics, resulted in a conflict of interest: the function of the Accountant General is to maintain accounts according to internationally established accounting standards, while the Auditor General has the responsibility to certify if these standards are strictly adhered to by the Accountant General, and the veracity of the accounting data. Recognising this conflict, the Government of Pakistan recently assigned the accounting functions of the Auditor General to the CGA.
Unfortunately, the CGA was to continue to function under the Auditor General. This latest summary is, therefore, an acknowledgement by the office of the CGA that greater independence is required to deal with this inherent conflict of interest. The move must be supported in the interest of good governance.
However, the summary suggestion that the accounts function be undertaken by a private limited company maybe too ambitious a target for this country for the simple reason that there is too much at stake. As a first step, autonomy which allows for independence from the economic managers of the time must be the target.
However it is also imperative that the audit functions must be streamlined with the objective of ensuring that the time lag between audit and the year of audit is bridged so that those responsible for any irregularities found by the Auditor General maybe dealt with appropriately.
As matters stand today the time lag from the year of audit has led to the defence of irregularities by the successors of those who were the decision makers at the time the irregularities occurred and who, therefore, have no knowledge of the irregularities committed earlier. The Accounting Offices of the CGA are, at present, mainly divided into three major wings ie Civil (Federal/Provincial Governments), Railways and Military Accounts.
These three wings are audited by independent offices headed by Directors General at the Federal and provincial level. The Audit of Military and Railway Wings is conducted at the Federal level by the audit offices operating at the national level. The audit reports are presented to the Federal Public Accounts Committee by the Auditor General and at the provincial level by respective Directors General.
The CGA also has a separate unit titled Pakistan Revenue Accounts Limited (PRAL) which is managing the e-portal in accordance with the policies of the FBR. Unfortunately the performance of PRAL has not been up to the mark reflected by the numerous scams that have been brought to light with respect to tax refunds and duty drawbacks amongst others.
Computerisation, it must be understood, cannot by itself end corruption for one obvious reason: the computer calculates on the basis of whatever is fed in and if the input is not accurate then the scams would continue. There is therefore a need for the government to look into this aspect of PRAL as well on an emergent basis.
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