Parliament approves MVR 64.91M budget for Auditor General’s Office

The Parliament has approved a MVR 64.91 million budget for the Auditor General’s Office for 2020.

The budget was passed with the unanimous consensus of 82 lawmakers present at the parliamentary sitting this Monday afternoon.

The Auditor General’s Office had been allocated a budget of MVR 60 million this year.

The Public Accounts Committee had approved a higher MVR 64.91 million budget for 2020 last week.

According to committee evaluations, 36 percent of the budget for 2020 – amounting to MVR 43.98 million – will go into staff salary payments.

The Auditor General’s Office has also been allocated a travel budget of MVR 4.8 million.

AUDITOR GENERAL’S OFFICE 2020 BUDGET ALLOCATION:

• Salary and allowances to the Auditor General: MVR 795,000
• Staff salary and allowances: MVR 43.98 million
• Pension: MVR 1.25 million
• Training: MVR 1.74 million
• Travel and additional expenses: MVR 4.89 million

The increase expenditure on staff salary and allowances follows the decision to provide overtime to staff starting from Q4 of this year.

Additional allocations approved by the Public Accounts Committee includes MVR 55.75 million for construction of an office complex under Public Sector Investment Program (PSIP).

It also agreed to approve an additional MVR 55.75 million for construction of an office complex for the Auditor General’s Office pending evaluation of the Finance Ministry of new policy initiative projects for 2020.

According to the 2020-2022 fiscal policy released by the Finance Ministry, projections plans the state budget for 2020 at MVR 39.55 billion.