News
Cabinet defers National Audit Bill for 24th time; says too much powers for AG
The Cabinet of Ministers this week deferred the National Audit Bill for two weeks after ministers from both the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP) agreed the Bill in its present form conferred too much power on the Auditor General.
It was the 24th time the Bill came to the Cabinet but once again there was no nod for the Bill which has been opposed strongly by senior officials in the public service, mainly ministry secretaries, who act as Chief Accounting officers (CAOs) and could face fines for actions carried out in the line of duty if the Bill is enacted.
The most contentious sections in the draft Bill is the move to vest the AG power “to impose a surcharge on the value of a deficiency or loss in transactions of an audited entity, where the AG has reasonable grounds to believe that such transaction has been made contrary to any written law and is due to fraud, negligence or corruption of those involved in that transaction.”
Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said the powers vested in the AG in terms of draft Bill were unlike those vested with AGs in countries such as Britain or India and if the Bill was enacted, it could prove to be hindrance to public officials in carrying out their duties.
A senior official at the Prime Minister’s office said there were times like in case of natural calamities when funds had to be allocated at short notice overriding laid-down procedures. If this Bill is enacted, then public officials who carry out their duties will be penalised, he said.
The Cabinet decided that foreign experts should be consulted to see if the Bill could be redrafted in a manner that the AG retained powers but not at the cost of undermining others in the public service.
Entrusting surcharge powers with the AG has been strongly backed by the trade unions affiliated to the audit service. They say any attempts to dilute the contents of the draft Bill will be detrimental to the interests of the public who stand to benefit from additional State revenue, once the AG’s Dept is empowered to impose surcharges which will be channeled to the Treasury.
In April 2015 by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe proposed to the Cabinet that a National Audit Bill be drafted based on international standards of Supreme Audit Institutions . Since then it has made little headway.