Apart from the Chairperson of BRAC, the rest eight members of the governing body are non-executive. Distinguished individuals with high reputation in business and professions with pro-poor mindset have been elected to the Governing Body to bring their diverse skills and wise counsel in the governance of BRAC. In the year 2004, four meetings of the Governing Body and an Annual general Meeting of the general body were held. The audit committee also held four meeting in the year 2004. 

BRAC also appointed its first ombudsperson on September 1, 2004 with a comprehensive mandate to investigate any incident of maladministration and misuse of power within BRAC. Clear-cut policy regarding authority of each level of staff has been laid down. The staffs are empowered to take decisions at area, regional and programme level. Procedure manuals and policy documents contain organizational policies and procedures, which are open to all.

The internal control of BRAC is dealt by Internal Audit, Monitoring and Financial monitoring section. 100% audits are conducted where irregularities are detected in the course of normal internal audit, which is on sample basis. The frequency of audit in each of the Area offices, Head offices and commercial projects is at least once a year but two or more are conducted at locations and programmes that warrant a close watch.

In 2004, a system of continuous audit, whereby all financial transactions at BRAC Head Office are checked within a week, and risk based auditing has been introduced. Internal audit, during 2004, was conducted in 2,915 locations and 26 reviews undertaken. These reviews were discussed in review meetings and corrective measures were taken. Quarterly reports are prepared on unsettled irregularities of the review meeting decisions and submitted to the audit committee.

BRAC Inventory & Internal Financial Monitoring Section consists of 14 staff, periodically monitoring on inventory and internal financial control at BRAC Head Office and projects. The total number of inventory monitoring spots/areas was 68 and the figure for financial control was 13 in 2004.

Audit reports for all projects, along with FD-4 certified by the Auditors, were submitted to the NGO Affairs Bureau, Prime Minister’s Office. A total of 31 external auditing missions, from 6 audit firms, reported on different BRAC programmes in 2004. External Audit Groups include Ernst & Young, Malaysia Aziz Halim Anwar & Co; SF Ahmed & Co Ahmed Ahmed & Co; JR Chowdhury & Co SK Barua & Co

BRAC has two Donors’ Consortia for the BRAC Education Programme and for the Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction programme. These two programmes account for a large part of total donor finance to BRAC. The consortia conducted their own audits and external reviews and met twice in 2004 to discuss findings. The Consortia donors are the European Commission, Department for International Development (U.K), DGIS (the Netherlands), CIDA (Canada), NOVIB (the Netherlands), NORAD (Norway) and World Food Programme (WFP).

BRAC Finance & Accounts Division has won the World Bank 2004 CGAP Financial Transparency Award.