Intosai Auditing Standards

Budget preparation is a process with designated groups and individuals having defined responsibilities. According to Irene S. Rubin “ The public budget process mediates between organizations and individuals who want different things and determines who gets what out of the budget.”1The Government set up an annual budget that includes people perspectives, opinions , accountability and than determine how the budget will get divided based on protected interests. Moreover, Public budgeting determines how government spend money, provide necessary resources , and limit government expenditures to prevent overspending.

The budget process is a powerful planning tool for government to make important resource decisions. According the Carney and Schoenfeld‘s article on How to read a Budget, an operating budget is a reflection of government’s financial plans. When a budget is

125). Preparation, approval and implementation are the main steps in the development of public budgets. First the preparation must be begin with the issuance of instructions from the executives, followed by the development of department budgets by the department managers. Once all departmental budgets are completed, they are sent to the central budget office for final review and revision before being sent to the elected officials for approval. Approval is issued by the elected officials after any necessary deliberations take place. Once approved by the elected officials, the budget is considered law and must be followed. The next step is implementation. The budget is constantly implemented as funds are released over the course of the year, reviewed for appropriate use and to verify the budget is in line with projections. Finally the budget must be reviewed at the end of the year by the budget office. A comparison is made between actual figures and budgeted figures. The information gathered in this final step is used in helping to determine future budgets (Bartle, Hildreth, & Marlowe, 2013). There are two major challenges to balancing public budgets. The many actors (e.g. CEO, CFO, department heads, staff, etc.) involved in the development of a public budget and span many departments, and many units in one department making the meeting and negotiating process difficult. Due to the many constraints of policy and the law, the budget process can be long and arduous with four steps stretched into many. These are a few of the many challenges involved in developing a balanced public

The business planning is essential to achieve the targets but it should be within our planning resources, so the budgeting comes up to give the effective shape to the organization planning and success.

\Governments undertake budgeting as one of the crucial activities with a budget comprising of a plan regarding financial operations that comprise of estimated revenues for financing estimated expenditures within a given period (Florida Finance Officers Association, 2011). Effective budget processes require involvement of all stakeholders so as to enhance in arriving at a budget that is well planned as well as communicated to the respective stakeholders.

In a financial audit, the Auditor General is looking directly at the transactions and financial statements of the entity in search that the financial statements have been presented fairly with full disclosure and that they have met legislative authorities. With more than ninety-five audits performed on different government departments, Crown corporations and governments of the Yukon, Nunavut and Northwest territories, these financial statements are a great source in deciding whether or not these entities have been spending public funds appropriately. The Auditor General will come to a decision about whether or not the transactions have followed laws and will bring to the attention of Parliament anything believed to be of importance.

The Auditing Standards Board (ASB) redrafted the standards for clarity and reorganized all of the auditing sections (AU) into new one adding C after (AU-C), bringing both significant and subtle changes. For some of the standards only the format changed but others significantly impacted the auditor’s work. This project was very important for the globalization

One of the most significant documents in any local, federal, or public organizations is a budget. Employees in budgetary and financial management perform important roles within the public sector and hold exceptionally vital positions. Positions such as city and county managers, human resource managers, and public finance officers.

In controlling the financial manager makes sure that each department of the health agency is following the plans that have been put together. One way to do this is to study current records and compare them with reports from an earlier day and time. By comparing it’s often shows where you 're going to see the areas that need attention. The manager uses feedback to discover the areas that are not as effective. The purpose of controlling is to ensure that the original plans are being followed.

There is an increasing focus on improving the quality of public financial management around the globe, with many countries starting to make important and impressive achievements in strengthening public financial management and governance (Lovanxay, 2009). Nonetheless, much still remains to be done as we have discussed in this course. The public sector landscape is rapidly changing with an increasing emphasis on fiscal management and discipline, prioritization of expenditure and value for money. As a result from our dialogue on the subject, it is even more important that governments, national and local institutions, including regulators and professional accountancy bodies, work together in partnership to achieve long-lasting improvements, transparency and accountability in public financial

Auditors should plan the audit so that the engagement is conducted in an effective manner.

Performance-based budgeting measures, reports, and factors the outcome of an agency or program into future budget allocations. Moreover, this approach to appropriations creates incentives for an agency or program to produce measurable results in order to justify spending. This type of budgeting is defined as an “allocation of funds to achieve programmatic goals and objectives as well as some indication or measurement of work, efficiency, and/or effectiveness” (Young 12). Performance-based budgeting originated in the 1940’s after World War II when Hoover’s administration faced debt that surpassed the nation’s gross domestic product. The Hoover Commission attempted to align spending decisions with expected performance by recommending a shift from the traditional emphasis of government inputs to outputs (GAO 1997). Performance-based budgeting was designed to reform budgeting practices to focus on the measurement and reporting of outcomes.

Budgetary control is part of overall organisation control and is concerned primarily with the control of performance. The use of budgetary control in performance management has of late taken on greater importance especially as a more integrative control mechanism for the organisation. Discuss.

Budgeting control practices are then devices that organizations use to regulate their budgets. The controls are mostly comprehensive systems of budgets that aid management in carrying out its

Fiscal Policy refers to the various decisions undertaken by the government regarding public expenditures and revenue. There are a large number of sub-policies that are encompassed by the fiscal system. But all the policies can be broadly categorized as being either ‘Public Expenditure’ or ‘Public Revenue’. It can be said that the fiscal policy is a direct government intervention in the economic processes of an economy.