Auditor General´s (Functions, Powers, Terms and Conditions of Service) Ordinance, 2001

This 2001 Ordinance sets out the powers, functions, and terms of service of the Auditor-General of Pakistan, the constitutional officer (appointed under Article 168 of the Constitution) responsible for auditing government spending. Section 4 fixes the Auditor-General's term at five years from taking office, or until they turn sixty-five, whichever comes first; Section 5 allows resignation by writing to the President, and Section 6 gives the President control over granting or revoking the Auditor-General's leave. Section 3 and the attached Schedule set pay and benefits: a fixed pay package equal to the maximum of the MP-I pay scale, entitlements comparable to a Minister of State (including travel benefits), and a gratuity of one month's basic pay for each completed year of service, with these Schedule terms later updated by a 2015 notification.

Section 7 requires the Auditor-General to certify the Federation's, each Province's, and each district's annual accounts and submit them, with any comments, to the President, the relevant Governor, or the district authority. Section 8 spells out the core audit mandate: auditing all spending from the Consolidated Fund of the Federation and each Province to check it was legally authorised and properly applied, auditing Public Account transactions, trading and manufacturing accounts kept by government departments, and the accounts of any authority or body established by the Federation or a Province.

Section 9 extends this to bodies substantially financed by government loans or grants -- defined as receiving at least five million rupees in a year that also makes up at least half of that body's total spending. Section 11 lets the Auditor-General check whether the conditions attached to a specific grant or loan were actually met, with a right to inspect the recipient body's books after giving reasonable notice, unless the President or Governor decides this isn't needed in the public interest, or another law already assigns that body's audit to a different agency.

Section 14 gives the Auditor-General inspection powers -- to enter government accounting offices including treasuries, demand that accounts and documents be sent for review, and require information -- and makes obstructing these audit functions subject to disciplinary action under the relevant Efficiency and Discipline Rules. Section 15 covers auditing public sector companies (under the Companies Ordinance, 1984) and other statutory corporations. Section 17 lets the Auditor-General skip detailed audits where circumstances warrant, but a proviso added by the Finance Act, 2013 requires the Auditor-General to exempt from audit any expenditure of secret service agencies that the Federal Government certifies as relating to national security. Section 23 repeals the earlier Pakistan (Audit and Accounts) Order, 1973.

This Ordinance was originally promulgated during a period when Pakistan's National Assembly and Senate were suspended following the 1999 Proclamation of Emergency, as its preamble notes, and it has since been amended by later Finance Acts (2013 and 2015). It remains the operative framework defining the Auditor-General's role, though its Schedule and any monetary figures should be checked against the current official text given the amendments.