Chattogram Bureau :
Bangladesh has entered a high time to strengthen its accounting and auditing to promote accountability and transparency, said Md. Muslim Chowdhury, former Finance Secretary and then Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). It is important for both the public and private sectors, as their progress has been slow, he said in a recent interview with The New Nation recently over cell phone. . .He recommended reforms to speed up processes and appoint the right people to key positions.
Audit reports submitted to the parliamentary committee on public accounts are often discussed five years later. By then, the officials responsible for answering might have retired or even passed away, he explained, highlighting why the government’s auditing system fails to ensure accountability.Like India, the UK, and other democratic countries, Bangladesh should appoint veteran opposition lawmakers to chair the public accounts committee.
Once, it was mandatory to form the committee in the first parliamentary session. In the past decade, this requirement was relaxed, and the consequences are clear, said Chowdhury.He added that to make public audits an effective tool for accountability, the reports should be discussed within the same year.In the public sector, there are two types of audits-financial audits and performance audits.
