Types of Audit

(a)       Compliance audit: This type of audit examines the transactions relating to expenditure, receipts, assets and liabilities of Government for compliance with the rules and regulations, orders and instructions issued by the Competent Authority either in pursuance of the laws or by virtue of the powers formally delegated to it by a superior authority.

(b)       Audit against provision of funds: To ascertain whether the expenditure was incurred for authorised purpose.

(c)       Audit against rules and regulations: To see that the expenditure incurred was in conformity with audit against rules and orders which involve interpretation of the rules / orders. Auditors' duty stops with bringing to the notice of the competent authority any action that is, in their opinion, contrary to the rules /orders on the subject. It is for the authority which is vested with the power to make rules to take a view in the matter and decide on the further course of action.

(d)       Audit of Sanctions: To see that every item of expenditure was incurred with the approval of the competent authority in the Government for expending the public money.

(e)       Propriety Audit: This kind of audit extends beyond scrutinising the mere formality of expenditure to its wisdom and economy and to bring to light, cases of improper expenditure or waste of public money. It is an essential and inherent function of audit to bring to light not only clear and obvious irregularities but also every matter which, in the judgment of auditors, appears to involve improper expenditure or waste of public money or stores even though the accounts themselves may be in order and no obvious irregularity has been committed.

(f)       Performance audit: Performance Audit is also called Efficiency-cum-Performance Audit (ECPA) or Value for Money (VFM) audit. It is a comprehensive review of the projects, programmes, schemes, organisations, etc. in terms of their goals and objectives aimed at ascertaining the extent to which the expected results have been achieved from the use of available resources of money, men and materials. Performance audit is an independent assessment or examination of the extent to which an organization, programme or scheme operates economically, efficiently and effectively. The reports are most of the time, filed without any action.