National college of Business Administration & economics

Auditing

Presented to : Mr Athar Ikram Topic: Audit Committees in Government

Departments
Submitted by : Salman Nisar Bhatti Syed Sajjad Tariq Yahaya Younas Usama Hassan Haider

Content to presntation

Auditing Audit committee Introduction to research paper Reporting & Accountability The Involvement of the Secretaries General with their Audit Committees The Membership of Audit Committees The Benefit to the Secretaries General of their Audit Committees Conclusion

Auditing :
An unbiased examination and evaluation of the financial statements of an organization. It can be done internally (by employees of the organization) or externally (by an outside firm).

Audit committee:
An operating committee of a company's board of directors that is in charge of overseeing financial reporting and disclosure.

Introduction
There is a significant difference between audit committees in Irish government departments and the private sector in terms of holding management to account. This difference revolves around the reporting and accountability relationships of audit committees in these sectors in that a committee in a department is advisory to its Secretary General (SG) whilst one in the private sector is in a position to hold the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to account. This paper explores this difference by considering the role of audit committees in government departments in terms of their relationship with and the benefit they provide to the Secretaries General (SGs) by outlining summary findings from research in this area.

Reporting & Accountability

1_Commen purpose of audit committee
2_Concept of audit committee in private sector
Audit Committee Private Sector Audit Committee

3_Concept of audit committee in Government Department

Audit Committee Government Department Secretary General

Board

Chief Executive Officer

Audit Committee

Direction of Reporting

The Involvement of the Secretaries General with their Audit Committees

1_ Audit committees in government departments 2_ SGs approving 3_ SGs role in the approval 4_Intrest of SGs 5_ SGs up to date

The Membership of Audit Committees

1_ Recruitment ,sourcing members & approval. 2_Appointing 3_View of role of committee 4_ SGs appoint internal members 5_Feedback 6_Sourcing ,is an issue? 7_Internal members

Conti
8_ SGs appoint external members, 9_ Interest and enthusiasm 10_ Importance to the SGs in 11_ weighting supports

The Benefit to the Secretaries General of their Audit Committees

1_ Audit committees provide 2_ Committees providing assurance 3_Major role 4_Resources 5_ Judgment of effectiveness

Conclusion
There is a significant difference in the reporting and accountability relationships between audit committees in the private sector and government departments and this paper considers the impact of this by exploring the relationship that the committees have with and the benefit they provide to the Secretaries General as the committees are established by them, they are advisory to and do not hold them to account. Whilst the SGs acknowledge that their committees are there to advise rather than hold them to account they support the work and independence of their committees to ensure they have an impact in their departments and regard their committees as providing a benefit to them which they value. The SGs allow and encourage their committees to act independently, drive themselves and carry out their