Minister requests increase in quality of audit reports

Minister of Finance, Ahmed Munawwar has requested Auditor General’s Office to increase the quality of its audit reports.

Minister Munawwar made the appeal during his meeting with Public Finance Committee of People’s Majlis on last Wednesday, October 19, to discuss proposed budget for AG Office for 2017.

He stressed that simply issuing reports was not enough, and said that the reports lacked vital information Ministry of Finance needed for its work.

“This is very important to us. For example, there are multiple reports released by the previous governments. I find it more important to make the mechanism for prosecution more efficient. Issues cannot be solved simply by releasing reports. Issues will be solved by improving quality of reports,” said Munawwar.

He stressed that it was the government’s policy to cut down on cost. And that State offices and independent organizations should also start adopting the policy.

He suggested that instead of spending more and more on travel to audit island and atoll councils, it was more important to provide better training and increase capabilities of financial executives in councils.

“It’s more important to focus on providing better training to financial executives in councils and making them better qualified. Even I don’t believe Audit Office alone can cover the whole country. The policy of Audit Office is good – to outsource audit of councils. That, I believe is how [the whole country] can be covered,” said Munawwar.

Minister Munawwar shared audit strategies used by some other select countries with members of Public Finance Committee.

Any act of corruption noted in reports released by AG Office needs to be looked into, and guilty parties prosecuted.

Ministry of Finance recently asked six former State officials to pay back embezzled money to the State, which came to light in audit reports.