Auditor General's Department Officer

What a Auditor General's Department Officer does daily

• Financial (regularity) audit — the core audit function: examining whether the financial statements of government entities (ministries; departments; statutory bodies; SOEs) are accurate and complete; whether all transactions are properly authorised and documented; whether revenue has been fully collected and properly accounted for; whether all expenditure is within the approved vote (Appropriation Act) allocation; whether assets are properly recorded and safeguarded; whether liabilities are properly disclosed; the financial audit involves testing accounting entries; reconciling bank statements; examining payment vouchers; verifying payroll; checking procurement transactions; and assessing the internal control environment
• Performance (VFM) audit — the more complex and analytically demanding audit function: selecting a specific government programme or function for in-depth examination; defining the audit criteria (what good performance looks like — efficiency; effectiveness; economy); collecting and analysing evidence (comparing actual costs against benchmarks; examining whether stated objectives were achieved; interviewing programme managers and beneficiaries; reviewing programme data); and reporting findings on whether the programme delivered value for money; performance audit findings typically identify significant wastage; poor planning; procurement irregularities; and programme failures that have cost the public large sums without delivering the intended benefits
• IT audit — examining the information technology systems that government entities use to manage public finances; the audit of the IFMIS (Integrated Financial Management Information System — the Treasury's government-wide financial management system); the RAMIS (Revenue Administration Management Information System — the IRD tax system); the ASYCUDA++ customs IT system; payroll systems; inventory management systems; identifying IT control weaknesses; access control failures; segregation of duties violations; data integrity problems; the IT audit function is increasingly important as government financial management becomes more digitised
• Procurement audit — examining government procurement processes and contracts for compliance with the Government Procurement Guidelines; the Ministry of Finance Procurement Manual; and the Public Finance Circular No. 05/2016; procurement audit is consistently one of the most fertile sources of audit findings in Sri Lanka given the scale of public procurement and the frequency of procedural breaches; single-source procurement without competitive bidding; contracts awarded to politically connected parties; artificially split procurement to avoid oversight thresholds; advance payments without performance guarantees
• Revenue audit — examining whether government entities have collected all revenues to which they are entitled; whether customs duty; income tax; VAT; excise duty; licence fees; and other government revenues have been correctly assessed and collected; whether revenue collection procedures are properly controlled; revenue leakage is a major finding category in Sri Lanka's AG audit reports
• Physical verification and asset audit — physically verifying government-owned assets (vehicles; equipment; buildings; inventories; stocks) against the asset registers; identifying unserviceable; missing; or unrecorded assets; the physical asset verification function is a basic but essential control against misappropriation and misuse of government assets
• Audit report writing and Parliament reporting — drafting audit observations; audit queries; and formal audit paragraphs that are included in the Annual Audit Report presented to Parliament; the audit report is the primary output of the AG's function and the quality of the writing — in both Sinhala and English — determines how effectively the findings are communicated to Parliament and the public
• COPA and COPE committee support — providing technical audit evidence and responses to questions from COPA (Committee on Public Accounts) and COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) during Parliamentary committee hearings; the AG's Department officers appear before COPA and COPE to explain audit findings and respond to Parliamentary inquiries
• Follow-up on audit recommendations — tracking whether audited entities have implemented the AG's recommendations from previous audit reports; the follow-up function ensures that audit findings result in actual improvement in public financial management rather than just being recorded in reports that are ignored
• Forensic audit — in cases of suspected fraud; misappropriation; or financial crime in government; conducting or supporting forensic audit investigations; gathering evidence for referral to the CIABOC; FCID; or AG's prosecution function; the forensic audit function connects the AG's Department to the anti-corruption and criminal justice system