Tag: finance act

Parliament spent US$45,400 on food: Auditor General

Parliament spent MVR 700,000 (US$45,400) catering for parliament members and employees for the year 2010, Auditor General Niyaz Ibrahim has revealed.

According to the 2010 audit report of the parliament, there have also been changes made in the agreement with the catering company violating the Finance Act.

The report states that changes to the price cannot be brought after an agreement has been reached in accordance with the Finance Act. The price of catering for parliament was however amended, thus violating the act.

The report states that the parliament paid the company MVR 766,601 to cater meals, and that catering for the meetings held is carried out without ensuring the presence of members and staff.

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Prosecutor General’s Office spent Rf145,596 in violation of Public Finance Act, finds audit report

The audit report of the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) for the financial year 2010 has found that the office spent a total of Rf145,596 (US$9,706) in violation of the Public Finance Act.

In the report made public yesterday, Auditor General Ibrahim Niyaz revealed that the PGO spent Rf 40,745 (US$2640) in additional expenses for interior design after moving to its new offices without an agreement on price and quality of the work as required by section 8.21 of the public finance regulations.

In addition, the PGO spent Rf 58,913 (US$3800) out of its 2010 budget to settle outstanding bills from 2009 without requesting the funds from the Finance Ministry in the duration stipulated in the Public Finance Act.

Moreover, the PGO spent Rf45,938 (US$3000) on an official dinner to participants of an e-crime conference participants in June 2010 without a publicly-announced bidding process.

In an issue highlighted in previous audit reports of state institutions for 2010, the Auditor General noted that financial statements were not prepared in accordance with international public sector accounting standards (IPSAS) following principles of “accrual accounting” or the “financial reporting under cash basis of accounting” issued by the IPSAS board.

The PGO however informed auditors that it would discuss the issue with the Finance Ministry to prepare financial statements in accordance with international standards in the future.

Attorney General’s Office

Meanwhile the audit report of the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) published along with the PGO audit report, the Auditor General noted that staff were paid overtime salary for the time spent waiting in a queue to sign out at the fingerprint system at the end of working hours.

The audit report also found that the Attorney General’s Office had not settled bills for services obtained from different parties within the duration stipulated in the public fiance regulations.

The AG Office was meanwhile owed a total of Rf 71,637 (US$4640) from different parties dating from 2009 but had not taken adequate efforts to recover the money, the audit found, adding that the cases had not been filed at court two years on.

A comparatively high amount of money had meanwhile been spent since 2002 for a software installed to maintain records of employees and case files, the audit found, noting that Rf1.5 million (US$100,000) had been spent as of last year to the company that created the software for maintenance fees, upgrades and other expenses.

The AGO informed auditors that the software initially purchased for Rf376,200 (US$24,000) would not be used from next year onward.

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