Laxmi Capital News
21 PEs disobey OAG direction to audit

Clearing thebacklog of financial auditing of public enterprises (PEs) was on the toppriority of newly appointed Auditor General Tanka Mani Sharma in May last year.Sharma also issued direction to as many as 21 PEs including Citizen InvestmentTrust and Nepal Tourism Board to clear all the backlog of auditing bymid-August, but the progress has been miserable.

None of the PEshas so far completed auditing till this date, though authorities of the Officeof Auditor General (OAG) have said that there have been some progress in theirworks and some of the PEs are in the final stage of completing theiraudits. 

The backlog ofunaudited financial activities dates back to 22 years in case of GuthiSansthanand 15 years in case of Agriculture Inputs Company. RastriyaBeema CompanyLimited and RastriyaBeemaSamsthan have not completed auditing for the pastseven years. 

Talking toRepublica, Sharma admitted that the entities have not obeyed the directions andnot a single PE has completed its task. “This shows that the situation of ourfinancial discipline is pathetic,” said Sharma, who had told the media lastJuly that he would collect the files of financial operations of all those whofailed to complete auditing within the given deadline. 

However, Sharmasaid he has now taken a different approach to deal with this issue. He said:“We have now planned to write to the concerned persons for auditing of thespending when they were leading the enterprises.” 

The constitutionalbody has issued several directives to the PEs, but even after that, they havebeen heedless to the OAG’s direction, according to OAG officials. 

The PEs havealways been havens for political appointment. Frequent changes of thegovernments have seriously impacted their management and damaged their financialtransparency.   

Director of theOAG, BaikunthaBahadurAdhikari, said that the office lacked any power to takeaction except issuing directives to them. “The reason behind low transparencyin the PEs is political appointments at the top positions,” he said. 

Most of thoseunaudited PEs lack even the basic financial details including balancesheets. 

The auditing ofNepal OriendMagnesite Pvt. Ltd remains for seven 11 years. The other PEs likeUdayapur Cement Industry, Herbs Production and Processing Company, Nepal FoodCorporation have not got their financial reports audited for the last sevenfiscal years.  

Likewise, National Construction Company and CivilAviation Authority of Nepal have also not got their financial activitiesaudited for four and three years, respectively. Nepal Tourism Board too has notbeen audited since 2012/13. OAG officials say that the Board’s financial recordis very poor as it has not even been able to provide basic financial details.Likewise, Nepal Drugs Limited, CIT, Gorakhapatra Corporation, and DairyDevelopment Corporation have their financial auditing pending for the FiscalYear 2015/16.

Source: My Republica, 7th February 2018

 

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