The duty and power of the Auditor General are both
clearly stated in the Constitution of Brunei Darussalam and the Audit Act. Under
the Constitution the Auditor General is required to audit the Accounts of Brunei
Darussalam, which includes the annual financial statement and the accounts of
ministries, departments and overseas missions.
The Auditor General may also be called upon to perform other Statutory Audits in
addition to his Constitutional Audits, such as those prescribed by the Currency
Act, and the Religious Council and Kadis Court Act. Where other statutory audit
functions of public bodies are not specially provided for by any written law,
the Sultan in Council may if he is satisfied that the public interest so
requires, direct that the accounts of such authorities be audited by the Auditor
General.
In recent years, economic diversification has led to the establishment of
government owned enterprises to undertake a multiplicity of functions mainly to
accelerate the growth of national development. Brunei Darussalam will continue
to incorporate more government owned companies to spearhead industrial growth in
the country through direct investment.
This trend will no doubt require a check to be carried out on the business and
financial management of the companies to ensure that the best corporate
governance is achieved.
By command of His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan, effective 25
September, 1997, the Auditor General was given a new mandate to audit the
accounts of government owned corporations/ companies. The above command of His
Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan was further strengthened by the recent
amendment to the Companies Act (Amendment) Order, 2003, Brunei Darussalam
effective 3 April 2003 which has added on 2 new subsections to Section 131 of
the Companies Act as follows:
"(8) The provisions of this section relating to the appointment of auditors do
not apply to any company in relation to which the Government has the power to
secure, by means of the holding of shares or the possession of voting power in
or in relation to that company, or by virtue of any powers conferred by the
articles of
that company, that the affairs of that company are conducted in accordance with
its directions.
(9) The accounts of any company to which subsection (8) refers shall be audited
annually by _
(a) the Auditor General; or
(b) any person who has been authorised to perform the duties required by this
section to be performed by an auditor, who shall be appointed annually by the
company:
Provided that where the accounts of such a company have been audited by a person
appointed under paragraph (b), they may be verified by the Auditor General".
The above amended Companies Act 2003 has come at a most opportune time in Brunei
Darussalam as this means that SAI of Brunei Darussalam has been mandated by
statute to carry out the audits of the external auditors and perform a
verification audit on the work carried out by the external auditors on
government owned companies.
The SAI of Brunei Darussalam has come a long way in its endeavors to carry out
its duties in line with the mandate as laid down in the Constitution. From time
to time, due to its relentless efforts to upgrade its work to a higher quality
and promote accountability in the public service, from its findings followed by
discussion with the auditee's management group, the outcomes have been fruitful
with a Statutory Body requesting SAI of Brunei Darussalam to do more than the
required verification audit; but also to include management audit.
With the additions of the subsections to the Companies Act (Amendment) Order, 8
2003, it has given SAI of Brunei Darussalam an expanded coverage in ensuring
that the management of Government owned Corporations / Companies are efficient
and in accordance with its directions..
Chamber of Control of Georgia has actively started structural reorganization
and institutional development under the leadership of the newly elected Chairman
Dr. Zurab Soselia. The number of Deputy Chairmen have been reduced from 5 to 4.
Moreover, the departments have been re-arranged by their auditing subjects and
now departments recognize their clear objectives.
In the framework of anti-corruption activity, the authority of the Chamber has
been changed totally. The deputy Chairmen, Heads of Departments and their
Deputies, Heads of Divisions and their Deputies have been dismissed. Moreover,
the total number of the local staff has been greatly reduced according to their
involvement in corruption and bribe sharing system of the old Chamber of Control
(approximately by 1/3, 300 employees) which should give the Chamber an
opportunity to improve their professional skills and to provide them with high
salaries.
As a result of the structural and institutional reform at the Chamber of Control
of Georgia one of the important subjects became the implementation of
international methods and aspects of auditing within the Chamber's everyday
activity.
Being a country on its way towards democracy, building the role of the Programme
Audit is of vital importance to Georgia. In this regard effective external audit
is very important but no component other than financial control exists so far.
There have been efforts to implement some techniques of Programme Auditing at
the Chamber of Control within the last years, but it is not extended widely. The
need of auditing economy, efficiency and effectiveness of the expenditures of
state funds, originates from the society itself. After the "Rose Revolution" the
probability and the level of corruption was reduced, but the struggle against
corruption and bribery is the priority both for newly appointed management of
the Chamber of Control and country's government. Not only financial statements
but also managerial decisions need to be audited. The Society must know and have
access to the information of how effectively and efficiently the State Funds are
spent.
In the nearest future, we are going to take into consideration European and
world best practice in Programme Auditing and implement it within the Chamber's
activity, to harmonize Georgian legislation with the developed countries best
ones, and make bases for caring out effective Programme Auditing.
At this moment the World Bank is discussing to finance the establishment of the
Training Center at the Chamber of Control of Georgia. The special strategy plan
and methodology in the field of Programme Auditing will be set up by
International Experts who will work on the pilot courses and on training the
trainers at the Training Center. I will have an opportunity to cooperate with
the International Experts in establishing Programme Audit Manuals and Guidelines
and participate in the training process and thereof share received knowledge and
experience with the auditors. We could create a team of retrained professionals
who will be able to perform efficient pilot audits meeting with international
standards.