Office of the Auditor General
[ Profile of Myanmar Supreme Audit Institution ]
Background
1. The origins of government auditing in Myanmar can be traced back to the pre-independence days of the British rule when we had an Auditor General appointed by the Burma Act of 1935. To help him exercise his statutory powers and his statutory duties a group of accounts and audit offices called the " Audit Circles " comprising the offices of the Accountant General (AG), Controller of Military Accounts (C M A), Controller of Post and Telecommunications Accounts (C P T A) and Examiner of Local Funds Accounts (E L F A) was established. When Myanmar gained independence, Parliament passed the Auditor General Act of 1948, which provided for the appointment of the Auditor General. The number of existing Audit Circles mentioned above, was increased in 1955 with the establishment of the office of the Director of Commercial Audit, which was charged with the responsibility to conduct the audit of the state-owned commercial enterprises. Moreover “ The Government Institute for Training in Accounts and Audit " was set up in April 1958 by the government with the objective of conducting courses for training the selected personnel from government departments, State owned Commercial Enterprises, and the junior staffs of the offices of Accounts and Audit mentioned above to improve their working knowledge and capacity so as to become proficient in their respective fields of work such as accounting, auditing, managing the administrative affairs of office etc. Since then, this Institute was placed under the control and supervision of the Auditor General. In 1962, the Revolutionary Council took over power, and during its reign, organizational structure of the Audit Department remained unchanged.
2. Then, in 1974, Pyithuhluttaw ( People’s Congress ) constituted under the newly adopted constitution of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Myanmar passed the Council of People’s Inspectors Law under section 55 of the said constitution. Under the provisions of the above-mentioned constitution and the Council of People’s Inspectors law the Council of People’s Inspectors was constituted with elected members of Pyithuhluttaw and regional Inspectorates were also formed with People’s representatives at State / Division and Township Levels. And the Auditor - General Act of 1948 was repealed by section 67 of the Council of People’s Inspectors law. As a result, with the exception of office of the Controller of Military Accounts, all the accounts and audit offices-namely, Offices of the Auditor General, AG, CPTA, ELFA, DCA, and the Government Institute for Training in Accounts and Audit - were merged into one office known as the Central Accounts Office in January 1974. Since then this Institute had become the Training and Research Section of the Central Accounts Office. The CMA was placed under the control of the Ministry of Defence in 1972-73 ending. At the same time, in accordance with the provisions of the new Constitution and the Council of People’s Inspectors, regional Accounts Offices were newly opened at State/Division and Township Levels to assist the respective People’s Inspectorates in their inspection tasks.
3. Again, on September 18, 1988, when the State Law and Order Restoration Council took over the reigns of government, it appointed the Auditor General and the Deputy Auditor General under its order No. 7/88 dated September 27, 1988, and on September 28, 1988 under its order No.5/88 the law of Council of People’s Inspectors was repealed by the Auditor General Law of 1988.
4. In March 30, 2011 the Peace & Development Council, formally known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council handed over the state power to the new government and Auditor General and Deputy Auditor General was appointed by new Auditor General Law in line with 2008 constitution.The Auditor General Law of 1988 was repealed by the new Auditor General of the Union Law of 2010. In accordance with our new Auditor General Law, we adopted decentralized system of government and our office structure is changed from centralized system to decentralized system. Now there are 14 Regional Auditor Generals for respective region and one Union Auditor General for Union level, known as Auditor General of the Union.
5. The Law Amending the Auditor General of the Union Law enacted on January 21 in 2013, October 10 in 2014 and January 22 in 2018.