How to carry out performance auditing of comprehensive agricultural development

At present, comprehensive agricultural development projects in Qiemo County, ** Uyghur Autonomous Region, fall mainly into two categories: one is land improvement projects, including large-scale improvement of low- and medium-yield farmland and comprehensive ecological management; the other is industrialised operation projects, including large-scale cultivation of cash crops and ecological shelterbelt projects. Auditing of comprehensive agricultural development funds must, on the basis of the authenticity and compliance audit content, deepen and expand the economic and effectiveness audit content, and on this basis establish evaluation standards for the performance audit of comprehensive agricultural development funds, so that the specific audit content is put into practice.

I. Why introduce benefit evaluation of comprehensive agricultural development

1. The current audit content of comprehensive agricultural development funds is narrow. Conventional auditing of comprehensive agricultural development projects focuses on auditing the authenticity and legality of fund use and management, but this practice of auditing funds alone makes it difficult to discover decision-making errors in development projects, and difficult to promptly and effectively adjust funds toward projects with higher benefits and to promote as a whole the optimal allocation of production factors such as funds, materials and labour. The best benefits of development projects are often the result of a combination of comprehensive means. This requires that, on the basis of conventional fund audit content, in-depth policy evaluation, decision review, management auditing, direct economic benefit review and ecological and social benefit evaluation be carried out, and that poverty-alleviation fund projects be subject to all-round review and evaluation of funds, quality and benefits, so that auditing projects, auditing funds, auditing financial revenue and expenditure, and auditing benefits are combined, making the content more comprehensive and thus the audit evaluation more objective and accurate.

2. The audit methods for comprehensive agricultural development funds are too single. Auditing of comprehensive agricultural development projects mainly uses the conventional audit methods of financial auditing. With socio-economic development, people pay more attention to the input-output effectiveness of funds, and the requirements for the breadth and depth of information disclosed in audit reports are increasingly high; commonly used financial auditing can hardly meet the requirements of socio-economic development and performance auditing. This requires us to introduce performance auditing on the basis of financial auditing, that is, on the basis of the technical methods of conventional financial auditing, to draw on and introduce comprehensive knowledge from multiple disciplines, absorb the reasonable elements of professional analysis in management consulting, and in the collection and evaluation process use investigation and research and various mathematical-logical operations and statistical analysis techniques, such as interviews, surveys, basic data processing, sampling, factor analysis, logical analysis, etc., so that the various factors affecting fund benefits that are hidden beyond the intuitive form of fund use are revealed, in order to strengthen comprehensive management and maximise the benefits of the use of special development funds.

II. What content is included in the performance audit evaluation of comprehensive agricultural development funds

1. The scientific nature and rationality of the fund arrangements for comprehensive agricultural development projects. Attention should be paid to whether the input of comprehensive agricultural development funds conforms to consolidating and strengthening agriculture's foundational position in the national economy, effectively increasing farmers' income, and promoting the sustained, rapid and healthy development of the agricultural and rural economy.

2. The appropriateness of the fund structure of comprehensive agricultural development projects and the timeliness of fund availability. Whether the proportion of investment in repayable funds is appropriate, whether there is a problem of increasing local financial burdens, or even being unable to repay, because the proportion of repayable funds is too large, and whether there is a problem of increasing farmers' burdens and, because local areas are unable to provide matching funds, resulting in low project quality and insufficient project quantities.

3. The economy and effectiveness of the implementation of comprehensive agricultural development project plans or agreements. Whether all comprehensive agricultural development investment projects implement the project legal-person system, the bidding and tendering system, the engineering supervision system and the project fund announcement (public disclosure) system; whether the implementation of bidding and tendering implements contract management and achieves the purpose of truly saving funds; whether engineering supervision can carry out follow-up supervision and inspection to avoid loss and waste; whether there are problems in project implementation such as unauthorised adjustment of project construction location, construction unit, construction content or construction scale; whether there are problems such as exceeding the plan, exceeding standards, exceeding the area, exceeding the budget, or arbitrarily carrying out projects outside the plan.

4. The operational condition and effectiveness of use after the completion of comprehensive agricultural development projects. Attention should be paid to whether, after the completion of comprehensive agricultural development projects, the project management department organises inspection and acceptance in accordance with engineering construction standards, project plan approvals, fund allocation documents, project design and construction contracts and relevant national document provisions; after acceptance, whether the management and protection entity is determined and property rights transfer procedures are handled to ensure long-term benefits; and whether the economic and social benefits brought by the completed project reach the expected results.