Audit Department wants MoU with NAB: AGP Rana Asad Amin

Lahore: Auditor General of Pakistan Rana Asad Amin said on Monday that Audit Department wanted to ink a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to
make the audit more effective and ensure speedy legal action against the erring officers/officials or institutions/department.
Talking to the media after addressing the launching ceremony of a 20-day 97th International Intensive Training Programme in Performance Auditing at a local hotel, he said workload on the NAB and the FIA (Federal Investigation Agency) could substantially be reduced provided the Audit department was given
the powers of arresting the corrupt officers/officials and confiscation of the plundered funds.

He elaborated that at present, the Audit Department could not do any more except proving documental misappropriation of funds or charges, and report to the relevant departmental secretaries
as well as the Public Accounts Committee that too delayed the matter by discussing it after two years.

Rana Asad Amin said that he also visited KPK and Sindh provinces and met the respective Chief Ministers to discuss the matter regarding undue delay of five years in resolving the audit paras. He said that he suggested both the worth CMs to expedite this processes by sorting out the audit objections within one year. He added that now Public Accounts Committees of these provinces are performing more actively to execute the pending work.

Auditor General of Pakistan mentioned that earlier, the performance audit was focused on small institutions such as school and hospitals, but this time, “Following the direction of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, we will be conducting performance audit even at ministry level.”
He added, Auditor General of Pakistan would assess the ministries and institutions that to what extant they achieved their set targets on various fronts, asserting that an overall audit report would also be compiled for its onward discussion in the cabinet and parliament.

Rana Amin said that now every ministry would have to perform in a best way and to give positive results.
Earlier in his address, the AGP said that Audit Department has imparted performance audit training to 330 officers from 33 foreign countries since 1981 to date.
He said that 22 audit officers from seven countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal and Turkey would be part of the 97th training programme.
The Auditor General said that performance Audit Wing of Pakistan has earned international recognition for its commitment, professionalism and well-designed training modules.