Answer
Citizen of the country are more concern on issues concerning public accountability, including the misuse of public funds, evaluation of the effectiveness and outcomes of government programs, information disclosure based on the “right-to-know,” and requests for disclosure of government financial data through financial statements. To meet these challenges, each government has one Supreme Audit Institution that is responsible for the public auditing whereas Financial Comptroller General is responsible to maintain public accounting.
Supreme Audit Institution in Nepal is called the office of the Auditor General (OAGN) who conduct public audit of the government budget and expenditure. Regarding the aim of auditing, public audits are carried out as comprehensive audits that include financial auditing and performance auditing or value-for-money (VFM) auditing.
The aim of audit of government auditing has some audit areas that are completely different from those concerning the auditing of corporate accounts. In government auditing, the scope of financial auditing includes audit areas other than the audit of accounts, and performance auditing includes the evaluation of economy, efficiency, and effectiveness. OAGN also performs the audit of regularity and propriety.
Government auditing was initially conducted as compliance audits, which means accurate account auditing or financial auditing. Subsequently, government organizations were required to provide effective public services by efficient management in the performance of their trusteeship obligations, which in turn necessitated performance auditing.
As a feature of performance auditing, the Auditing Standards of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) point out that “performance audits should not concentrate solely on criticism of the past but should be constructive.