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Home > About AGO > Our Role

The Role of Auditor-General

INTRODUCTION

1. Under Article 148F(3) of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore, it is the duty of the Auditor-General to audit and report on the accounts of all the departments and offices of the Government, the Public Service Commission, the Legal Service Commission, the Education Service Commission, the Police and Civil Defence Services Commission, the Supreme Court, all subordinate courts and Parliament. Under Article 148F(4), the Auditor-General shall perform such other duties and exercise such other powers in relation to the accounts of the Government and accounts of other public authorities and other bodies administering public funds as may be prescribed by or under any written law. The Auditor-General have also been given the additional duty under Article 148G(1) to inform the President of any proposed transaction by the Government which, to his knowledge, is likely to draw on reserves which were not accumulated during its current term of office.

2. Where it is not provided for under any written law, the Auditor-General may, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, audit the accounts of a public authority or body if the public authority or body concerned requests him to do so. This is provided for under Section 4(1)(b) of the Audit Act (Chapter 17, 1999 Revised Edition).

3. In discharging his duties, the Auditor-General is required under Section 5 of the Audit Act to make such examination as he may consider necessary to ascertain whether all reasonable steps have been taken:

   1. to safeguard the collection and custody of public moneys or other moneys subject to his audit;

   2. to ensure that issues and payments of moneys subject to his audit were made in accordance with proper authority and payments were properly charged and supported by sufficient vouchers or proof of payment; and

   3. ensure that the provisions of the Constitution, the Financial Procedure Act (Chapter 109, 1992 Revised Edition) and any other written law relating to moneys or stores subject to his audit have been, in all respects, complied with.

4. Under Section 8(1) of the Audit Act, the Financial Statements of the Government of Singapore prepared in accordance with Section 18 of the Financial Procedure Act shall be transmitted to the Auditor-General for audit and his report thereon.

5. Section 8(7) of the Audit Act allows the Auditor-General to comment on all matters relating to public accounts, public moneys and public stores and it has been a practice to report under this Section instances of irregularities.

6. The duties of the Auditor-General are discharged through conducting annual financial statements audits, examining controls of selected financial systems, test-checking accounting and other records, and reviewing the effectiveness and efficiency of selected activities and operations.

7. This audit approach is not intended to reveal all errors and irregularities. However, it should enable the Auditor-General to discover some of the occasional serious lapses when public moneys and stores have not been properly controlled or used, when revenue has not been collected or when expenditure has not been incurred in accordance with proper authority.

8. The Audit Report for every financial year ended March is submitted to the President in accordance with Section 8(9) of the Audit Act. It does not report findings from every audit done by the Auditor-General's Office. Only certain findings are selected for inclusion in the Report.

Last updated on 1 Aug 2009