February 12: Political lobbying has intensified for the coveted post of the auditor general.

Altogether 16 people are in the fray for the leadership of the Office of the Auditor General, which has been running for eight months under the leadership of the acting auditor general. However, when and who will be appointed as the auditor general has not been decided yet.

The post of auditor general has remained vacant ever since the then Auditor General Tankamani Sharma Dangal retired after completing his term on May 22. After Sharma's retirement, the then Deputy Auditor General Rammaya Kunwar was given the responsibility of acting auditor general for one and a half months. After Kunwar went on compulsory retirement on August 7, Maheshwar Kafle got the responsibility.

Bamdev Sharma was given the responsibility of acting auditor general after Kafle went on mandatory retirement in late January due to the age limit.

Due to the lack of leadership, the Office of the Auditor General has not been able to move forward with the strategic plan.

Article 6 of Article 240 of the Constitution of Nepal 2072 has provisions regarding the eligibility criteria for the appointment of the auditor general. In that article, it is said that to be appointed to the Auditor General, one must have obtained a bachelor's degree in management, commerce or accounting from a recognized university or have passed the chartered accountancy examination and worked in a special category position of the Government of Nepal or have at least 20 years of experience in audit-related work.

Political parties try to appoint someone close to them as the Auditor General who can fulfill their agenda although there is a provision that the person appointed to the post should not be a member of any political party. The candidate should have completed 45 years of age and must have a high moral character to be considered eligible for the position of auditor general. According to the constitutional provisions, the term of the Auditor General is 6 years.

During the beginning of the current fiscal year, the Secretariat of the Constitutional Council invited applications for the office bearers of various constitutional bodies including the vacant post of auditor general.

A 15-day notification was issued in this regard. A total of people have applied for the post. The work of appointing the auditor general has not yet been done as the Constitutional Council has to evaluate the eligibility criteria by looking into the documents submitted by the candidates and recommend a suitable person for appointment.

Who is qualified?

Among the sixteen contenders, 14 have obtained master's degrees in management or commerce from a recognized university, while the rest have passed the chartered accountancy examination.

Seven out of 16 have 21 to 30 years of experience in auditing. Two have over 20 years of auditing experience in the private sector. Seven people have no audit experience.

Eleven out of 16 people have experience of working as a special class officer of the Government of Nepal. The rest have no such experience. Among the applicants, five have five years, one has four years, four have three years and one has 10 days working experience in special category. Three of them have experience of working as Joint Secretary of the Government of Nepal. Two people do not have the experience of working as a special class officer of the government.

According to the nature of the work of the Office of the Auditor General, in addition to educational qualifications, the selection should be made on the basis of experience in audit services and experience of working as a special class officer.

The experts say that the government should immediately appoint an auditor general due to the pressure to issue the final audit report of the income and expenditure of 753 local levels and the annual report to be issued by the auditor general.

The Office of the Auditor General audits all federal and state government offices including the Office of the President and Vice President, Supreme Court, Federal Parliament, Provincial Assembly, Provincial Government, Local Level, Constitutional Bodies and Offices, Courts, Attorney General's Office, Nepal Army, Nepal Police and Armed Police Force. The purpose of the audit is to protect the public resources of the country.

The Office of the Auditor General also gives necessary suggestions and recommendations based on the effectiveness of government income and expenditure. The office submits and publishes the annual report of all government agencies to the President. The Office of the Auditor General has the right to see the accounting documents at any time to audit various agencies of the Central and State Governments. However, the lack of leadership has made the Office of the Auditor General weak in its role.

Who are the candidates?

One of the candidates is the current acting auditor general Bamdev Sharma Adhikari. He has 26 years of audit experience and three years of experience as a special class officer.

Maheshwar Kafle, who retired as acting auditor general a few days ago, is also a strong contender. Having worked as an auditor for 29 years, he has three years of special category work experience.

Former Acting Auditor General Ram Maya Kunwar is also a contender. Kunwar has 21 years of audit experience and five years of experience in special category. Another contender Secretary Toyam Raya does not have 20 years of audit experience. However, his experience as a special class officer is four years.

Former Deputy Auditor General Baburam Gautam is also in the race. He has 27 years of audit experience and five years of experience as special class officer.

Former Secretaries Shishir Dhungana, Gopinath Mainali, Hari Basyal, Ram Prasad Thapalia, Ramsharan Pudasaini, Shankar Kharel do not have 20 years of audit experience. Dhungana, Mainali and Thapalia have 5 years of experience as specific class officers while Basyal and Pudasaini have three years of experience. Former Secretary Kharel has only 10 days of experience as special class officer.

Other two contenders - deputy auditors general Baikuntha Adhikari and Chandrakant Bhandari have 30 years and 26 years of audit experience respectively, but both of them do not have the experience of working as a special class officer. Former Deputy Auditor General Ashok Karki is also in the race. He has 29 years of audit experience but no experience as a special class officer.

There are also two chartered accountants in the race for auditor general. Subodh Kumar Karna and Hari Silwal who have twenty years of auditing experience in the private sector.