| Post: | Auditor General |
| Body: | Sri Lanka |
| Native Name: | Sinhala; Sinhalese: ශ්රී ලංකා විගණකාධිපති Tamil: இலங்கை கணக்காய்வாளர் தலைமை |
| Insignia: | File:Auditor General's Dept SL logo.png |
| Insigniasize: | 125px |
| Incumbent: | Chulantha Wickramaratne |
| Incumbentsince: | 29 April 2019 |
| Department: | Auditor-General's Department |
| Seat: | 306/72 Polduwa road, Battaramulla |
| Nominator: | The President |
| Appointer: | The President |
| Appointer Qualified: | with Constitutional Council advice and consent |
| First: | Cecil Smith (as Accountant and Auditor General) |
The auditor general of Sri Lanka (Sinhala: ශ්රී ලංකා විගණකාධිපති Śrī Laṃkā viganakādhipathi; Tamil: இலங்கை கணக்காய்வாளர் தலைமை) is appointed by the President to aid accountability by conducting independent audits of government operations. These audits provide members of Parliament with objective information to help them examine the government's activities and hold it to account. According to the constitution, the auditor general is empowered to audit the accounts of all departments of Government, the Offices of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Judicial Service Commission, the Public Service Commission, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration, the Secretary-General of Parliament and the Commissioner of Elections, local authorities, public corporations and business or other undertakings vested in the Government under any written law.
The auditor general of Sri Lanka is the head of the Auditor General's Department.[1] [2] [3]
While the title of Auditor General of Sri Lanka was formally adopted on the country's enactment of its 1978 republican constitution, the position or an equivalent to it has existed since 1799 under various titles.[3] The Department in its current form considers itself a continuation of the office established in 1799, and the table below thus lists all officeholders that have held positions equivalent to the position of the current Auditor General.[3]
| Auditor General | Took office | Left office | Appointed by | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accountant and Auditor General | ||||
| 1 | 24 January 1799 | 1799 | Frederick North | |
| Civil Auditor and Accountant General | ||||
| 2 | September 1799 | 1802 | Frederick North | |
| Accountant General and Civil Auditor | ||||
| 3 | 29 September 1802 | 1806 | Frederick North | |
| Civil Auditor General | ||||
| 4 | 1 October 1806 | 1809 | Thomas Maitland | |
| 5 | 14 June 1809 | 1811 | ||
| 6 | 30 January 1811 | 1814 | ||
| 7 | 1 September 1814 | 1816 | Robert Brownrigg | |
| 8 | 2 March 1816 | 1 December 1817 | ||
| 9 | 1 December 1817 | 1823 | ||
| 10 | 1823 | 1841 | James Campbell | |
| Auditor General, Accountant General and Controller of Revenue | ||||
| 11 | 1 February 1841 | 1847 | James Alexander Stewart-Mackenzie | |
| 12 | 28 May 1847 | 1851 | James Emerson Tennent | |
| 13 | 1 October 1851 | 1861 | George William Anderson | |
| 14 | 24 June 1861 | 1866 | Charles Justin MacCarthy | |
| 15 | 3 January 1866 | 1870 | Hercules Robinson | |
| 16 | 10 March 1870 | 1876 | ||
| 17 | 16 June 1876 | 1877 | William Henry Gregory | |
| 18 | 23 May 1877 | 1890 | ||
| 19 | 18 October 1890 | 1891 | Arthur Havelock | |
| 20 | 31 July 1891 | 1895 | ||
| 21 | 10 June 1895 | 1901 | ||
| 22 | 1 March 1902 | 1907 | Joseph West Ridgeway | |
| Colonial Auditor | ||||
| 23 | 1 March 1907 | 1909 | ||
| 24 | 8 April 1909 | 1914 | Henry Edward McCallum | |
| 25 | 27 May 1914 | 1922 | Robert Chalmers | |
| 26 | 1 March 1922 | 1931 | William Manning | |
| 27 | 25 June 1931 | 1946 | Graeme Thomson | |
| Auditor General | ||||
| 28 | 16 February 1946 | 1953 | ||
| 29 | 2 March 1953 | 1963 | Herwald Ramsbotham | |
| 30 | 14 September 1963 | 1964 | William Gopallawa | |
| 31 | 21 February 1964 | 1969 | ||
| 32 | 15 August 1969 | 1971 | ||
| 33 | 11 October 1971 | 1983 | ||
| 34 | 2 May 1983 | 1993 | J. R. Jayewardene | |
| 35 | 26 January 1993 | 2000 | Ranasinghe Premadasa | |
| 36 | 13 August 2000 | 2006 | Chandrika Kumaratunga | |
| 37 | 23 October 2006 | 2007 | Mahinda Rajapaksa | |
| 38 | 3 January 2007 | August 2010 | ||
| 39 | 2010 | 2015 | ||
| 40 | 27 November 2015 | April 2019 | Maithripala Sirisena | |
| 41 | 29 April 2019 | Present |