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Microlesson · 5-min read

Government Audit - Audit of Commercial Accounts and Stores/Inventories

# Audit of Commercial Accounts

Public enterprises maintain commercial accounts. They are classified into three categories:

CategoryDescriptionAudit Approach
Departmental EnterprisesEngaged in commercial and trading operationsSame as any Govt department where commercial accounts are kept
Statutory Bodies / CorporationsCreated by specific statutes, mostly financed by Govt via loans/grantsDepends on nature and type of governing statute
Govt CompaniesSet up under Companies Act, 2013Conducted by their own auditors appointed by C&AG under the statute

# Audit of Stores and Inventories

Audit of accounts of stores and inventories has been developed as part of expenditure audit.

## Objectives

The audit is conducted to ascertain:

  • Whether regulations governing purchase, receipt, issue and sale of stores are well devised and properly carried out
  • To bring to the notice of Govt any deficiencies in quantities of stores held
  • To verify that purchases are properly sanctioned, made economically, and as per rules for purchase laid down by competent authority
  • To ensure that prices paid are reasonable and as per those shown in contract for supply of stores
  • To check accounts of receipts, issues and balances regarding accuracy, correctness and reasonableness of balances in inventories

Worked example

### Example 1

Example: A defence stores depot shows beginning stock 10,000 units, receipts 5,000 units, issues 6,000 units. Closing balance must be 9,000 units. Auditor performs physical verification and finds 8,500 - the 500-unit deficiency must be reported to Govt.

⚠️ Common exam mistakes

  • Treating stores audit as separate from expenditure audit - it is a part of expenditure audit
  • Auditing price reasonableness only against quotations and ignoring contracted rates
Reference:
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