LAHORE: Auditor General of Pakistan Javaid Jehangir has said that the responsibilities of the officers of Pakistan Audit and Accounts Service have become all the more pivotal in ensuring and strengthening of parliamentary oversight and adding value to governance in the domain of financial management as well as financial reporting.
He was speaking at the Pakistan Audit and Accounts Academy in Lahore at the final passing out ceremony of the 46th batch of probationers of Specialized Training Programme as the chief guest the other day. The ceremony marked the culmination point of a rigorous training spanning over 10 months. The ceremony was also attended by the senior officers of Pakistan Audit and Accounts Service to congratulate the probationers for achieving this milestone at a critical juncture of their career.
In his keynote address, the AGP shared that it was important for the passing out officers of the Pakistan Audit and Accounts Service to realise that they have the privilege and responsibility to step into the shoes of fraternity of officers whose tradition has been revered since 1860 when the first Auditor General of United India took over his coveted office as a guardian of public purse.
He said that the probationers of 46th batch were entering into service at the time when one of the prerequisite of professionalism for public sector auditors includes working in an IT environment which in turn affects other processes and technology and is thus termed as age of disruptive technologies. Therefore officers of Pakistan Audit and Accounts service are obligated to focus on their continuous professional development, learning new skills for assimilating audit technique commensurate with emerging audit areas and working environments to prove themselves as productive members of the public sector auditing community.
The AGP emphasised that the Department of Auditor General of Pakistan (DAGP) was cognizant of all the challenges and has set the process of reforms in motion which included setting up of field audit offices (FAO) for specific sectors like for climate change, social safety net, petroleum and natural resources and water to name a few. Similarly to realign human resource development, a comprehensive domain specific indigenous capacity-building programme has been developed which lays out a roadmap consisting of a set of newly- developed courses to be attended each year by all officers from grade 17 onwards. The department is also in process of revising the audit planning parameters as well as making reporting of audit results more in line with the changing expectations of the stakeholders, he said. All these efforts can translate into strengthening public accountability and good governance in the country if the officers demonstrate dedication, diligence, sincerity of purpose, and having faith in their hard work, he held.
