Civil Service Commission (CSC) members paid their mobile phone bills out of the commission’s budget illegally, according to the CSC audit report for 2010.
In the report published on Tuesday, Auditor General Ibrahim Niyaz noted that under the article 20 of Civil Service Commission (CSC) Act, the salary and benefits of the five commission members must be determined by the People’s Majlis (parliament).
However, he revealed that the members phone bills were paid in 2010 without parliament’s approval and in violation of the CSC Act.
Therefore, the amount paid for phone bills must be reimbursed the to the state’s consolidated revenue account, the Auditor General told the commission members. The report does not specify the total amount spent on phone bills.
According to the report, CSC members refuted the AG’s conclusion, claiming that phone, computers and such items were considered as “facilities” rather than benefits.
“Since facilities are not determined by the parliament, the CSC decided these things according to the CSC Act and Public Finance Act,” members said.
They also told the auditors that the phone bill issue was clarified by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) and parliament, adding that “none of the institutions stated it was illegal”.
The Attorney General had previously concluded that mobile phone bills of ACC members was also paid out of the commission’s budget illegally during 2010.
Meanwhile in the CSC audit report it was found that the commissions trips were not recorded properly and filed within three working days of the end of the trip as stipulated by clause 5.13 of the public financial regulations.
In addition, the audit report noted that two CSC members who visited the “Meeting of the Chiefs of Public Service Commissions of SAARC member countries” in November 2010 in India received trip allowance from the commission budget – even though it was a fully sponsored trip by the organisers. Therefore, the AG requested the members to reimburse the trip allowance as well.
Another member who went on a seven-day study tour trip was asked to reimburse US$888 out of the total allowance, as the member returned four days early.
The Auditor General recommended the commission to reacquire unused funds left over from the trips as stipulated in section 1.01 of state financial regulations.
Out of the Rf24.5 million (US$1.6 million) annual budget released to the CSC in 2010, the report noted that Rf549, 816 (US$35,656) was spent on trips – which was almost 50 percent over the budget allocated for such trips.
According to the CSC financial statement, 95 percent of the trip budget was spent on overseas trips.
More than Rf11.9 million (US$773,581) was meanwhile spent on salary and benefits of staff.
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