Mandated by The Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (OCAG) promotes Good Governance, Accountability and Transparency by providing high quality audit reports on the Public Accounts of the Republic and of all courts of law and all authorities and officers of the Government. As the CAG, in the exercise of these functions is not subjected to the direction or control of any other person or authority, it develops confidence amongst public at large and provide independent assurance to the stakeholders viz., the Parliament, the Executive and others that public funds are being used efficiently and for the intended purposes. The audit services provided by OCAG are broadly of three categories as follows and guided by the Government Auditing Standards, Code of Ethics and Quality Control System issued by the CAG:
Compliance Audit (CA) focuses on whether a particular subject matter is in compliance with authorities identified as criteria. The subject matter of the compliance audit is determined by the audit scope and objective.
Compliance audit may be concerned with regularity i.e. adherence to formal criteria of laws, rules and regulations or agreements. It may be concerned with propriety i.e. observance of general principles of sound public sector management, the conduct of public officials or cannons of financial propriety.
Further information about CA:
●Government Auditing Standards of Bangladesh 2021 (Chapter 09: Compliance Audit)
●Compliance Audit Guidelines, 2021
Financial Audits (FA) are attestation engagement. The subject matters (financial position, financial performance, cash flow statement, Owner’s equity statement) of financial audits recognized and measured against the criteria of financial reporting framework by the responsible party who presents the financial statements which are treated as subject matter information.
Further information about FA:
●Government Auditing Standards of Bangladesh 2021 (Chapter 07: Financial Audit)
Performance Audit (PA) focuses on whether interventions, programmes, and institutions are performing in accordance with the principles of economy, efficiency, and effectiveness and whether there is room for improvement. The subject matter of a performance audit is defined by the audit objectives.
Further information about PA:
●Government Auditing Standards of Bangladesh 2021 (Chapter 08: Performance Audit)