Auditor General of Pakistan Javaid Jehangir said that the responsibilities of officers of Pakistan Audit and Accounts Service have become all the more pivotal in ensuring and strengthening of parliamentary oversight which will add value to governance in the domain of financial management as well as financial reporting.

The Auditor General was speaking at the Pakistan Audit and Accounts Academy in Lahore at the final passing out ceremony of the 46th batch of probationers of specialized training program as chief guest. The ceremony marked the culmination point of a rigorous training spanning over 10 months. The ceremony was also attended by the senior officers of Pakistan Audit & Accounts Service to congratulate the probationers.

In his keynote address, the Auditor General shared that it was important for the passing out officers to realize that they have the privilege and responsibility to step into the shoes of fraternity of officers whose tradition has been revered since 1860 when the first auditor general of United India took over his coveted office as a guardian of public purse.

He said that the probationers were entering into service at the time when one of the pre-requisite of professionalism for public sector auditors includes working in an IT environment which in turn affects other processes and technology.

The Auditor General emphasized that the department was cognizant of all the challenges and has set the process of reforms in motion which included setting up of field audit offices (FAO) for specific sectors like for climate change, social safety net, petroleum & natural resources and water to name a few.

Similarly to realign human resource development, a comprehensive domain specific indigenous capacity building program has been developed which lays out a roadmap consisting of a set of newly developed courses to be attended each year by all officers from Grade 17 onwards.