Audits on some institutions have to be conducted by force: Auditor General

Auditor General Niyaz Ibrahim has said that audits on most institutions have to be conducted by force.

Speaking at the Financial Committee meeting, Niyaz said that some state institutions, when approached to conduct audits, make auditors wait for hours without even offering a place to sit down. Audits are often delayed because the institutions fail to provide the necessary documents. Several documents are even altered before they reach the auditors.

As an example, Niyaz said that when asked for meeting minutes of an independent institution, the reports were changed to include “only two or three lines”. He accused the institutions of attempted deception.

He noted negligence by several institutions in spending state money, and said that transactions were not properly recorded. They lacked experts in this area - no chartered accountants were employed at any government office.

Referring to the concerns raised by World Bank at the meeting with them, Niyaz noted that along with strengthening the Audit Office, it is also important to employ educated, competent personnel at government offices. Currently, government accounts are handled by young school leavers.

Proper records of transactions are not kept at government offices due lack of expertise, which results in encouragement for wastage of state funds.

Referring to the lack of details of how Rf 54 million was spent by Elections Commission, which was noted in the Elections Commission Audit Report FY 2010, Niyaz said that such things happen due to the negligence of Secretary Generals of institutions.

A Secretary General was appointed to Elections Commission in May 2011, and the position is once again currently vacant.

According to Elections Commission Audit Report FY 2010, details exist of how Rf 39m out of Rf 54m was spent during five elections which took place between 2007 and 2010; however details of how Rf 15m was spent are still missing.