The Parliament, on Tuesday, has approved an MVR 134.29 million budget proposed by the Auditor General’s Office (AGO), as it is, for next year as recommended by the Public Accounts Committee.
The proposed budget by AGO was approved by the unanimous consensus of the 51 lawmakers who participated in the vote.
According to the Public Accounts Committee’s report, the MVR 134.29 million proposed budget includes MVR 61.4 million in staff expenses, MVR 10.4 million in travel expenses and MVR 12.9 million to run its office.
In summary, the proposed budget allocates MVR 89 million for recurrent expenses, reflecting an increase of MVR 11.3 million from this year’s approved amount. Capital expenses are set at MVR 44.6 million, marking a rise of MVR 23.5 million compared to the current year’s allocation.
As such, MVR 34.7 million will receive an additional MVR 34.7 million from the state budget next year, compared to the MVR 99.5 million allocated this year.
The Public Accounts Committee, on Monday, decided to approve the MVR 134.29 million budget proposed by AGO without any changes.
Speaking at a Public Accounts Committee meeting last Tuesday, Auditor General Hussain Niyazy said the Office plans to conduct 81 audits next year, including nine special audits and 61 audits of ministries.
In addition to this, Niyaazy said the Office is expected to conduct 94 audits of local councils, 27 audits of projects implemented with grant assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the United Nations (UN), 22 audits of companies operated by local councils and 16 audits of IT departments in various SOEs.
Niyaazy emphasized that due to AGO’s limited resources, the Office has to privatize some of its audits, which he also cited as the key reason why some audits are incomplete by the end of the year.
He explained that previously, the AGO followed a process where the Auditor General would review and improve audit reports after their completion. However, starting this year, Niyaazy stated that the Auditor General will closely supervise the appointed auditors and personally sign off on the audit reports.
Niyaazy also mentioned that a steering committee has been established under the direct oversight of the Auditor General, and noted that SOEs will be audited by auditors appointed by this committee.