From 576 pending audits 62 reports completed so far

Auditor General’s Office (AGO) has said that 576 audits have been scheduled for this year, with 62 reports completed to date.

In information shared with Parliament's Public Accounts Committee, AGO said that 330 of the audits in 2024 were of to previous years. Of these, 57 audit reports have been finalized and published. A further 173 reports are currently being prepared, while the remaining 106 audits are at various other stages of completion.

For this year, five audit reports have so far been finalized, with 35 in the preparation stage. The rest remain in earlier phases of the audit process.

Audits are being carried out across eight categories:

- Financial and Compliance Audits: 210

- Environmental Audits: 8

- Information System Audits: 8

- Special Audits: 17

- Performance Audits: 11

- Local Council Audits: 188

- State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) Financial Audits: 84

- Donor-Funded Project Audits: 50

According to the AGO, only four SOE financial audit reports have been completed and made public so far. The audit process for approximately 40 percent of SOEs has not yet begun, primarily due to delays in the submission of financial statements.

Assistant Auditor General Ibrahim Fazeel said that only 16 companies had submitted their statements before the deadline. As of 19 June, just three more had submitted their statements, while 10 places have yet to do so.

PCB has been notified of the non-compliance, he said.

Fazeel said that delays in receiving complete and accurate financial documents hinder the timely completion of audit reports.

Audits of local councils have also proven to be time-consuming. To date, only 16 audit reports from local councils have been completed. An additional 92 are in the preparation stage, while 80 are currently undergoing audit work.