In what sounds as a surprise revelation, nearly 90 per cent of public expenditure goes without any audit by the designated government agency, meant to do the job on a regular basis. The failing is often attributed to the dearth of manpower and logistics. A recent report of this newspaper says that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in charge of conducting the hugely extensive work through subordinate audit and inspection departments is far from keeping up with the mounting work load. As a result, the list of unaudited spending, particularly those related to projects, is getting longer, and quite often audits are done post-facto, long after the projects are over.
Understandably, the consequences of audits left unaccomplished is far-reaching so far as accountability in government spending is concerned. The portion of audits actually done (let it be said, 10 per cent) is only a fraction of the total expenditure outlay of the government in a year. That is to say, a vast majority of the spending is not under any form of systematic scanner, rendering the government machinery, irrespective of the nature of composition of its political power matrix, not accountable, hence unbridled, as regards its massive spending.
The job is no doubt onerous and time-consuming. In advanced countries, on-line auditing is in practice which often produces immediate results and because of the fact that the executing agencies, being constantly aware that their decisions are subject to intensive scrutiny, tend to follow the expenditure guidelines as far as practicable. Still, completion of all auditing in a given year is not a feature common in most countries. The situation in Bangladesh, needless to say, is pathetic.
It has been reported that moves, taken to gear up the audit department through improving its capacity, were far from adequate. Concerned officials have expressed the view that an increase by another 10 per cent of audit inspections would result in much better levels of accountability and transparency. This can be found aptly valid from the number of audit objections in the prevailing span of limited audits done. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the ninth Parliament settled more than 4000 audit objections involving Tk 151 billion until last September. In dealing with the objections, some of which are quite serious, the office of the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) recovered around Tk 14 billion. This clearly reflects the need for expanding the audit network.
Under the existing governance culture in the country, where transparency is not even at its bare minimum level, it is not the individuals who can be expected to correct the state of things. But a well-equipped and well-functioning system such as that of auditing, can help bring a semblance of discipline, transparency and, last but not least, accountability in the public domain. It must not be ruled out that absence of audit watchdogs has, to a large degree, provided scopes for much of the financial irregularities. It is high time the authorities did their bit to do the needful.
