Fisheries Ministry: Documents requested by Auditor General handed over

All financial reports required to complete the Fisheries Ministry’s 2009 audit has been handed over to the Auditor General’s Office, the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture has said today.

The statement follows allegations by the Auditor General’s Office that the Ministry has refused to share some documents related to the audit.

Speaking at a press conference today, Abdulla Naseer, Permanent Sercretary at the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture said: “The Auditor General first asked us, on 29 August 2013, to send the ministry’s financial reports. We have sent all the reports. Then they asked for the related payment vouchers. In all, 43 of the 49 vouchers were found. But we couldn’t find some of the other documents that they have requested.”

He said that verification documents connected to reports of some 10 trips made abroad by ministry officials, and some other minor documents, have not been shared. However, Abdulla Naseer asserted at the press conference today that the ministry has no intention to hide anything from the Auditor General.

“We cannot produce an audit that we cannot find. If the travel report was not filed by the individual who made the trip, there is now way we can submit it,” said the Permanent Secretary.

In a letter to the Parliament Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday, the Auditor General’s Office said that Fisheries Ministry claims that some documents, requested by the office, are filed at Maniyafushi, a marine research island under the ministry in Kaafu Atoll.