RAA Circulars

                          Circular                              

The Royal Audit Authority (RAA) has been certifying the accounts of donor assisted projects as mandated and required under the Project Agreements signed between the Royal Government and the respective donors.

 However, there have been numerous cases where audit could not be taken up as the financial statements were not kept ready when audit team visited the Project Management offices. In some cases the financial statements were not prepared even after the transaction audits were completed. Besides causing undue delays in submission of audited financial statements, non preparation of financial statements in time had also adversely affected the subsequent audits planned by the RAA. Since it is the responsibilities of the Project Management to prepare the financial statements and maintain proper books of accounts, it is expected that these are made available for audit purposes when auditors visit the respective projects. It is, therefore, decided that henceforth, the RAA shall not depute the Audit Team unless the RAA receives the following documents from the Project Management:

1.          The draft financial statements duly signed by the project officials;

2.          Reconciliation of Fund balances, and

3.          Statements of Fund balances as at the end of the year from the Department of Public Accounts (DPA).

 All concerned are, therefore, requested to furnish the above information to the RAA within 45 days from the end of respective year to enable the RAA to depute the audit team as planned and facilitate timely submission of audited financial statements to the donors.

( Ugen Chewang )
Auditor General of Bhutan

RAA(AG-SP)2006/798

Dated: 28.08.06

 Notification

The Royal Audit Authority is adopting a specific time frame for issuance of Audit Clearance Certificate to the Civil Servants. This is done to suit administratively for both the service provider and recipient that is by minimizing rush and waiting time of the applicants and it would also enable the Royal Audit Authority to pay much needed attention with faster and efficient delivery of service. The following time frames and procedures for processing of applications for the Audit Clearance Certificate (ACC) are hereby adopted:

(a)              The Audit Clearance Certificate (ACC) application forms in original duly completed in all respect and applicants with clear record shall be issued within 48 hours under normal circumstances from the receipt of the applications;

(b)              All applications shall be processed on the first come first serve basis i.e. on the basis of diary number;

(c)              Applications received on the last working day of the week shall be issued by the first working day of the following week provided that conditions in (a) above are met;

(d)              Applications rejected shall be returned/notified immediately i.e. not later than the following working day; and

(e)              Organizations should submit applications forms with all requisite information of the applicants in their own letter heads for facilitating rapid identification and processing of application for the Audit Clearance Certificate.

Mail Receipt Section:

Receipt of applications for the Audit Clearance Certificate should be promptly recorded in order of receipt of Mails in the RAA. All applications received should be forwarded to the Follow-Up Division as per the time frame given in the table below:

Time of Receipt of applications by Mail Receipt Section	Applications submission  to Follow-Up Division	Time of submission to Follow-Up Division
(i)    09.00 to 12.00 hrs	Same day	13.30 hrs.
(ii)   12.00 to 14.00 hrs	Same day	16.00 hrs
(iii)  15.00 to 17.00 hrs	Following day	10.00 hrs

Follow-up Division:

The Follow-Up Division shall verify the relevant records in the Royal Audit Authority and the applications shall be forwarded to the Audit Clearance Section as per the time frame given in the table below with their dated signature and remarks (acceptance or rejection):

Time of receipt of applications by Follow-Up Division	Application submission to Audit Clearance Section	Time of submission to Audit Clearance Section
(i)    10.00 hrs	Same day	16.00 hrs
(ii)   13.30 hrs	Following day	10.30 hrs
(iii)  16.00 hrs	Following day	13.30 hrs

Audit Clearance Section:

The Audit Clearance Section on receipt of applications from Follow-Up Division shall process and issue the Audit Clearance Certificate as per time frame given in the table below:

Time of receipt of application by Audit Clearance Section	Application submission to Mail Dispatch Section	Time of submission to Mail Dispatch Section
(i)    10.30 hrs	Same day	16.00 hrs
(ii)   13.30 hrs	Following day	10.30 hrs
(iii)  15.00 hrs	Following day	12.00 hrs

The Audit Clearance Section shall return the rejected applications to Mail Dispatch Section as per the above time frame duly assigning the reasons for the rejection.

Mail Dispatch Section:

The Mail Dispatch Section shall ensure that the approved Audit Clearance Certificate is recorded in the Register maintained for the purpose in order of receipt from the Audit Clearance Section and dispatched numbers are duly assigned.

All Audit Clearance Certificate approved during the day and received by it are recorded in the Register on the same day.

The Audit Clearance Certificate collected from the RAA by the representatives of the agencies/individual concerned are delivered properly with name and dated signature of the recipients.

The Audit Clearance Certificate dispatched directly to agency/individual through post shall be under a standard cover letter.  

The rejected applications shall also be dispatched within 24 hours to the relevant Organizations duly assigning the reasons for the rejection in a standard form designed for the purpose. 

This shall come into effect from 1^st October 2006.

( Ugen Chewang )
Auditor General of Bhutan