Para 2.2.47 — MSO

2.2.47 No precise rules can, however, be laid down for regulating the course of audit against propriety. Its objective is to support a reasonably high standard of public financial morality and sound financial administration and devotion to Government’s financial interests. In any case, Audit Officers in the performance of their duties should apply the following general principles that have long been recognised as standards of financial propriety:

(i) The expenditure should not prima facie be more than what the occasion demands. Every public officer is expected to exercise the same vigilance in respect of expenditure incurred from public moneys as a person of ordinary prudence would exercise in respect of expenditure of his own money.

(ii) No authority should exercise its powers of sanctioning expenditure to pass an order that will be, directly or indirectly, to its own advantage.

(iii) Public moneys should not be utilised for the benefit of a particular individual or section of the community unless:

(a) the expenditure involved is insignificant; or

(b) a claim for the amount could be enforced in a court of law; or

(c) the expenditure is in pursuance of a recognised policy or custom.

(iv) the amount of allowances, such as travelling allowances granted to meet expenditure of a particular type, should be so regulated that the allowances are not, on the whole, sources of profit to the recipients.

The proper discharge of duties by an Audit Officer in this field is a very delicate matter and requires much discretion and tact. Audit observations against expenditure should not be expressed as based on "canons of financial propriety" but as transgressing a universally accepted standard of official conduct or financial administration.