The Audit Report of President’s Office for 2011 has revealed that the then government, of former President Mohamed Nasheed, used the budget of the President’s Office to pay phone bills of several staff holding political posts.
The report states that there was no limit for phone bills, and there were also no procedures to distinguish between official and private phone calls for several political staff during this period.
Sources have told Sun Online that post-paid SIM cards were purchased for some political staff under the name of the President’s Office.
The Audit Report states that MVR 187,397 was provided to political staff for personal use from the President’s Office budget to be repaid to the office, of which only MVR 3,206 had been repaid.
The report notes that records were not kept of assets according to procedures prescribed in the Public Finance Regulation. The report also states that MVR 294,037 was spent from the budget of Muleeaage to pay for eight days in the Maldives by two UK citizens, and procedures on accommodating guests were not followed in this process.