As Chairman of the Asian Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI) and on behalf of the Board of Governors I would like to express my appreciation of the work done on this publication "Accountability and Control of Public Enterprises". It has taken over two years to complete this research program which I believe has been a rather difficult but rewarding task for the authors. The Governing Board of ASOSAI which has been very sensitive to the training needs of member countries and acknowledging the paucity of information available on public enterprises in the ASOSAI region on a comparative basis commissioned this research study to be undertaken.
I am confident that this publication will not only be particularly useful to practitioners in the public sector, but of great interest to researchers and academics. It will no doubt be of considerable value in the numerous training courses and seminars on public enterprises conducted by ASOSAI and by our colleagues in INTOSAI and other affiliated regional organisations. I am also confident that this publication will be a source document for legislators and administrators who hold public accountability sacred.
I would like to thank all those particular country SAIs who responded to the questionnaires requesting information for this publication and the co-operation they have extended to the authors. Information pertaining to some countries is not complete and could not be included in this edition but it is hoped they may be included in an ensuing publication.
This publication would not have been possible but for the efforts of the authors, Mr D.J. Hill Deputy Auditor-General of Australia, Mr C.P. Mittal, Deputy Comptroller and Auditor-General of India and Mr L.T. Kulasingham, Deputy Auditor-General of Malaysia who were commissioned to undertake this assignment. I must also express my gratitude to Mr S. Sethuraman retired Deputy Comptroller and Auditor-General of India who was originally associated with this research project prior to his retirement in November 1986. My grateful thanks also go to the Auditors-General of Australia, India and Malaysia for making available their Deputies in addition to their normal duties for this project and meeting the associated costs involved.
On behalf of ASOSAI I would like to thank Mr D.J. Hardman, Associate Professor, School of Accounting, University of Technology, Sydney, who acted as adviser and technical consultant to the authors.
It is not possible for me to mention by name all of the others who assisted the authors in one way or another.
In conclusion I would like to say that I am proud that ASOSAI has been able to make such a significant contribution to the ever expanding store of knowledge in regard to public enterprises generally and to public accountability in particular.
Keiichi Tsuji
President of the Board of Audit of Japan and Chairman of ASOSAI (1985 -1988)
April 1988
This book originally started as a monograph but with the wealth of information that came to hand, the authors saw the opportunity of developing the source material into a more complete text.
Fifteen chapters of this book were finalised during the term of my predecessor Mr. Keiichi Tsuji and were to be published as Volume 1. However, the Governing Board of ASOSAI in June 1988 decided to commission the authors to continue their research to cover other Asian countries not included in the earlier study. The authors completed their assignment in December 1988 and decided to incorporate the additional country profiles with the earlier research in a single edition. The resulting book provides a remarkable scenario of public enterprises in the Asian region from a different perspective to most books written on this subject.
I would like to thank all those associated with this project and particularly those heads of SAIs who responded freely to requests by the authors for information in compiling the additional chapters to the text.
M.Jusuf
Chairman Supreme Audit Board of Indonesia
and Chairman of ASOSAI (1988 -1991)
April 1989