Article 104 of the Constitution states: “In the Control Yuan, there shall be an auditor general who shall be nominated, and with the approval of the Legislative Yuan, appointed by the President of the Republic of China.” According to Articles 5 of the Organic Act of the Control Yuan, and Article 4 of the Organic Act of the National Audit office the Control Yuan shall set up the NAO. The auditor-general shall, under the direction of the President of the Control Yuan, be responsible for the overall administration of the ministry and supervise its personnel and subordinate agencies.
The NAO is composed of five departments. The first department is in charge of the auditing of general public affairs; the second department audits national defense expenditures; the third department is responsible for auditing special public affairs; the fourth department is in charge of auditing state-run corporations and government-owned businesses, and the fifth department is responsible for auditing financial affairs, whose re-examination office is in charge of reviewing the auditing cases and supervising and directing audit affairs of local governments. Moreover, the NAO maintains under its direct control the offices of secretarial affairs, general affairs, accounting, statistics, personnel, ethics, and others, and finally established is an office of counsel. Each office is in charge of its respective duties. Under the NAO, there are such officials as assistant auditor general (concurrently acting as the departmental directors and chiefs), senior auditors, senior examiners (concurrently acting as deputy departmental directors and sectional chiefs), auditors and examiners. The NAO shall have a chief secretary, counselors, departmental directors, deputy departmental directors, office chiefs, secretaries, senior specialists, sectional chiefs, specialists, sectional assistants, and assistants to fulfill their prescribed duties. Major auditing operations are decided by resolutions of the Council of Auditors, which is composed of the auditor general, deputy auditor generals and senior auditors.
According to Paragraph 1 and 2 of Article 14 of the Organic Act of the National Audit Office, an audit department shall be established in every province and provincial-level city, and an audit office in every county and county-level city to audit the local governments and their subordinate organizations. The auditing departments or offices must also audit central or local government organizations in their area as authorized by the NAO. To audit these organizations, a department or office shall also be established in central or local special affairs organizations, public business organizations and public corporations.
At present, the audit system dealing with central government auditing affairs consists of the NAO and its two subordinate auditing offices of agroforestry education and transportation construction. The audit system dealing with local government auditing affairs consists of the subordinate agencies of the NAO, such as departments of audit in Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung City, and 15 audit offices in Taiwan province, including Keelung City, Ilan County, Hsinchu County, Chiayi County, Pingtung County, Hualien County, Taitung County, Penghu County and Kinmen County.
Visit National Audit Office website