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“We
now seek your help in improving and strengthening the
internal audit processes,” he told the chartered
accountants present at the meeting.
At
present, the internal audit cell of the state finance
ministry is looked after by officials on deputation from
the Comptroller and Auditor General’s office. But the
performance of the cell had been less than satisfactory
and the state had returned some of the central
government’s development funds simply because it could
not utilise it.
“The
finance minister has sought our help in improving the
internal audit system in the finance ministry to start
with. Later on all government departments will be
subjected to internal audit,” said ICAI council member
and chairman of internal audit committee Abhijit
Bandyopadhyay.
Dasgupta
has also sought the help of practising ICAI members to
stop false reporting of VAT (value-added tax) returns.
Some of the dealers often claim tax credit for inputs,
which they have never used. “On verification, it is
found that these dealers do not exist at all. I,
therefore, would request ICAI members to look into this
problem and plug the gaps,” Dasgupta said.
Speaking
about the ICAI efforts on internal audit, Bandyopadhyay
said the institute would introduce standards specific to
the subject.“By the year-end, the ICAI will come out
with 10 standards. Already three standards are in place
and the rest are under various stages of approval,” he
said.
The
standards on internal audit, which have already been
approved, are basic principles of audit, planning and
documentation.
Source
: Calcutta Telegraph - Calcutta, India, dated 22/11/2007
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