The World Bank is implementing a project to strengthen the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General to produce and timely disseminate quality audit reports to the public, meeting international standards that earn enhanced responsiveness of the executives.
It is being implemented under the broader umbrella of the “Strengthening Public Expenditure Management Program (SPEMP)”, said press release yesterday.
The project is to enhance the professional capacity of the Office of CAG. SPEMP is being implemented under a World Bank administered Multi Donor Trust Fund.
An action plan has been developed for strengthening the OCAG’s relations with stakeholders. The project has identified the type and scope of 20 pilot audits and commenced seven audits in the first phase.
Further, it has finalized the course design for Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), and also selected 72 participants for the first round of CIPFA certificate course.
The project has put in place a consortium consisting of an international consulting firm - PKF (UK) LLP, the UK National Audit Office (NAO), the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), and a team of national consultants to provide the Management and Implementation Support Consultancy services, which expedited the project implementation.
The project team prepared a detailed work plan that was discussed and approved in a meeting of the Project Steering Committee.
The OCAG is moving forward with implementation under a participatory approach using a results framework to monitor and evaluate project activities.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has agreed in principle to conduct a Peer Review of the current systems and practices of the OCAG Bangladesh. CAG Bangladesh sent formal requests to NAO UK and CAG India for establishing twinning arrangements.
It is important that the draft Audit Act gets finalised at the earliest and presented to the Parliament for strengthening the OCAG.
The delay in the passage of the Audit Act will constraint in sustaining the enhancement of scope and quality of audit being undertaken through the project, due to lack of required independence of the OCAG in terms of authority to use the required resources.
A World Bank team and OCAG jointly reviewed the project implementation progress and urged the need for The OCAG and the Ministry of Finance to work closely for delegating decision making authority on the project affairs to the OCAG.
