Audit Management Group II

Function:

The office conducts Audit of two types viz.

1. Compliance/Regularity Audit and
2. Performance Audit.

Compliance Audit refers to examination of the transactions relating to expenditure of the audited entities to ensure whether the provisions of the Constitution of India and applicable Laws, Rules, Regulations, various orders and instructions issued by the concerned authorities are being complied with. In Performance Audit, the office takes up scheme or an activity implemented by a department. This would involve analyzing records from Secretariat level (Conceptualization) to field levels (implementing agency). A comprehensive analysis of the entire activity/scheme is taken up to ascertain the level of achievement of the objectives of the scheme or activity with suitable recommendations.

Audit Plan:

An annual audit plan is drawn up every year with reference to Compliance Auditing Guidelines issued in 2016 and other instructions issued by HQ office from time to time as well as experiences gained in last few years. Since the resources are limited, focus is made in areas of high risk than to thinly spreading out the resources throughout the government activities for better socio-economic impact and value addition to governance. In compliance with the Para 3.4 of the Compliance Auditing Guidelines, a top down and risk based approach has been adopted for selection of Departments. The assessments of risk factor are considered on the basis of functionality of the department, major policy initiatives/ priorities of the Government/ budget documents, expenditure incurred on Centrally Sponsored Scheme/Flagship Scheme, deduction of GST by the departments, and media reports. After assessment of the risks associated with the unit, the auditee units are divided into 3 categories viz. high risk, medium risk and low risk. All high and medium risk departments are covered in every year and low risk departments in a cycle of five years. During audit, a fair number of existing auditable units of the Departments are selected using sampling method and the concept of outliers in such a manner that they constitute a representative sample and the audit findings could be generalized to present the overall picture of the Departments functioning.

The office also identifies schemes, functions and activities implemented by each department on the risk parameters and each wing takes up Performance Audit of one or two schemes or activities of the department after factoring in man power resources at disposal.

Audit Process:

Field Audit- At field level the primary records from which the auditee units render vouchers to treasury are subjected to test check on sampling method. After field audit, audit comments in draft form are received in head quarters sections of the office which are further vetted for accuracy and correctness of the comments. This Inspection or Local Audit Reports are then issued to the auditee unit after duly endorsing a copy to the controlling office for information and compliance. At each stage the department or the auditee unit is given opportunity to state its position on the audit comments.

Performance Audit- The above processes are followed even when a Performance Audit of any scheme is taken up for audit. The Secretary to Government is invited for an entry conference at the outset and results of audit with the departments concerned are discussed in an exit conference. Based on the response of the department/auditee unit, the audit comments are treated either settled or noted for further follow up. Important comments are included in an Audit Report published at the end of every year which is submitted to the Governor for placing before the legislature.