Audit against propriety seeks to ensure that expenditure conforms to certain principles which have for long been recognised as standards of…

(a) Some general principles have been laid down in the Audit Code, which have for long been recognised as standards of financial propriety. Audit against propriety seeks to ensure that expenditure conforms to these principles which have been stated as follows: (a) The expenditure should not be prima facie more than 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. (b) No authority should exercise its powers of sanctioning expenditure to pass an order which will be directly or indirectly to its own advantage. (c) Public moneys should not be utilised for the benefit of a particular person or section of the community unless: (i) the amount of expenditure involved is insignificant; or (ii) a claim for the amount could be enforced in a Court of law; or (iii) the expenditure is in pursuance of a recognised policy or custom; and (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.