The Auditor General’s Office (AGO) has unveiled plans to carry out a comprehensive programme of 346 audits in the forthcoming year. Presenting the AGO’s annual work plan for 2024 to the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee on Monday, Mohamed Shan, Director at the AGO, detailed that these audits would encompass a broad range of financial and compliance checks, audit reviews, special audits, performance audits, and information audits.
Local councils, major state agencies, 39 state-owned enterprises (SOEs), 30 government-run projects, and three public funds will be audited under the plan. The special audits will include the Floating City Project, a project of the Dutch Docklands and the Maldivian government, which has remained behind schedule for several years with several project plan changes and deadline extensions within that period – and with no significant work undertaken so far.
Special audits are also planned for State Trading Organization (STO), Fuel Supply Maldives (FSM), SME Development Finance Corporation (SDFC), Maldives State Shipping Company (MSSC) and Regional Airports Company (RAC).
The top priority next year will be to conduct major audits, such as that of the entire state’s financial accounts, the AGO’s representative explained, pointing to the government’s debt, guarantees, fiscal strategy, debt strategy, budget position report as well as all ministries and institutions as a focus of next year’s audits.
The AGO has proposed a budget of MVR 123 million for 2024.
The Auditor General’s Office is currently led by Auditor General Hussain Niyazy, appointed by President Ibrahim Mohanmed Solih in July 2021. Under the Audit Act (4/2007), the AGO is mandated to audit all government institutions, accounts and government trading bodies; enhance public accountability and good governance and sound financial management in the administration of government institutions, state owned enterprises and joint venture companies in which the state holds shares; set rules, regulations and standards governing the audit in the Maldives; and carry out any function conferred on the Auditor General by or under any other law of the Maldives.