Bihar govt to take help of CAs

PATNA: In view of the increasing volume of work and financial activities, the state government is considering to hire the services of chartered accountants (CAs). This was announced by CM Nitish Kumar on Sunday at the inaugural session of the two-day National Conference on Internal Audit organised by Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). "It is a must to check financial irregularities and stop occurrence of scams originating from state treasury. One such scandal is known as fodder scam that started from treasuries through unchecked financial embezzlement," said Nitish while inaugurating the conference. He said the government would have no problem hiring the services of chartered accountants because the official internal mechanism is not able to cope with the situation now because of growing economic activities both in public and private sectors. Nitish asked the ICAI to the get in touch with the finance department officials to discuss ways and formalities for engaging the chartered accountants in government departments. “We want to make your maximum use in government works,” he told the gathering. The CM said in any case the accounts should be maintained and it would also help in spending money in right manner and as per the provisions. He said that his government has experience of three fiscal and the plan expenditure was to the tune of Rs 25,000 crore in just two years and four months since November 24, 2005 when he took over. He also pointed that his government followed Fiscal Responsibility Budget Management (FRBM) Act and never exceeded the limits of borrowing. The inaugural session was attended by chairman of the committee on internal audit of ICAI Abhijit Bandyopadhyay, central council member Vijay Garg, Chairman, Patna branch of Central India Regional Council (CIRC) of ICAI Vikramaditya Sinha and chartered accountants coming from various parts of the country. It was pointed out at the session that internal audit has always been of significance to the corporate world and served as a tool in the hands of the management for ensuring internal control. The ICAI is the premier body regulating the profession of accountancy and auditing in the country and was set up under Act of Parliament. It is also the second largest body in the world. During the two-day conference spreading over six technical sessions, the topical issues like risk-based internal audit, internal control, accounting standard and management consultancy, besides understanding the roots of internal auditing and the way it has developed over the years would be discussed.