Comptroller and Auditor General

Comptroller and auditor-general is the abbreviated title of a government official in a number of jurisdictions, including the UK, the Republic of Ireland, India, and China. (Cf. list below)

Other jurisdictions use the similar titles Comptroller general or auditor general to refer to a similar office. These are titles of high level government officials (titles of Heads of Supreme Audit Institutions), see the list in International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions.

The comptroller and auditor-general role was first created in the United Kingdom by the Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866 which combined the functions of the comptroller-general of the exchequer, (who had authorised the issue of public monies to departments since 1834) with those of the commissioners of audit, (who had traditionally presented the government accounts to the treasury).^[1] Under the terms of the act the comptroller and auditor-general continued to authorise the issue of money to departments (the comptroller function) and was given the new task of examining departmental accounts and reporting the results to Parliament. The role has since been replicated in former commonwealth states, and separately adopted by China in the 1960s.

List by country/zone

• Australia: Auditor-general of the Australian National Audit Office

• Canada: Auditor General of Canada
  • British Columbia:Auditor General of British Columbia

Each Canadian province and territory also has its own Auditor General.

• China: Auditor General of China

• Colombia: Controller General of Colombia.

In Colombia the Office of the Controller General of the Republic of Colombia (Spanish: Contraloría General de la República de Colombia) is an independent government institution that acts as the highest form of fiscal control in the country. As such, it has a mission to seek the proper allocation of resources and public funds.

Each Departmental Government has its own Controller General, and big cities such as Santiago de Cali also have a similar position for accountability purposes.

• Hong Kong: Director of Audit of Hong Kong
• India: Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
• Indonesia:Audit Board of the Republic of Indonesia, "Badan Pemeriksa Keuangan" (Cf. Constitution of Indonesia)(currently the Chairman is Hadi Poernomo) http://www.bpk.go.id
• Ireland: The Controller and Auditor General (CAG) (Irish: Ard-Reachtaire Cuntas agus Ciste) is a constitutional officer whose office was established under Article 33 of the Constitution of Ireland. The CAG is appointed by the President on the nomination of Dáil Éireann. Based in Dublin Castle, the CAG operates independently of government. The office of the CAG is required to audit all accounts of moneys and all spending authorized by the legislature. The current CAG is John Buckley. The office of the CAG deals directly with citizens along with State officials.

List of Comptroller and Auditor Generals Since 1923

• 1923 George McGrath
• 1944 John Maher
• 1949 William Eugene Wann
• 1953 Liam O Cadhla
• 1964 Eugene Suttle
• 1973 Sean Mac Gearailt
• 1981 P.L. McDonnell
• 1994 John Purcell
• 2008 John Buckley

Source: Dublin Castle

• Italy:Corte dei conti
• Pakistan: Auditor General of Pakistan
• Scotland: Auditor General for Scotland
• Singapore: In Singapore, the body managing tax records is referred to as The Comptroller of Income Tax.
• South Africa: Auditor-General (South Africa)
• Spain:Tribunal de Cuentas
• Sri Lanka: Auditor General of Sri Lanka
• Taiwan: Control Yuan of the Republic of China

• United Kingdom: In the United Kingdom the Comptroller and Auditor General is an officer of the House of Commons who is the head of the National Audit Office, the body that scrutinises central government expenditure. The current C&AG is Amyas Morse, who was formerly the Commercial Director at the Ministry of Defence.

The unabbreviated title in the United Kingdom is Comptroller General of the Receipt and Issue of Her Majesty's Exchequer and Auditor General of Public Accounts.

Similarly, the Patent Office, sometimes unofficially known as the UK Intellectual Property Office, is headed by the Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks.

• United States: Comptroller General of the United States

The Comptroller General is the director of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an agency founded in 1921 to ensure the accountability of the federal government. Banks are supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, an officer within the federal Department of The Treasury.^[2]

• Wales: Auditor General for Wales

See also

• Comptroller
• Comptroller of the Household
• Inspector General
• Auditor general; CAE in the Internal audit page; Director of audit
• Treasurer
• Corporate title
• List of institutions in charge of controlling public accounts, in the world: see INTOSAI#Members of INTOSAI

Notes and references

1. ^ Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866, section 5.
2. ^ U.S. office of the Comptroller of the Currency