Audit report reveals Finance Ministry withheld airport service charge funds from Civil Aviation Authority

It has come to light that Ministry of Finance and Treasury has withheld certain airport service charge funds that the Ministry is required to hand over to the Civil Aviation Authority.

The annual audit report of the Civil Aviation Authority published by the Auditor’s General Office today states that the Civil Aviation Act mandates the Ministry to grant $2 from the sum of the airport service charge collected from all departing passengers from the Maldives, to the Civil Aviation Authority and that Finance Ministry has withheld such funds.

The report highlights that the Civil Aviation Authority had written to the Ministry of Finance and Treasury and Attorney General’s Office seeking the finds on several occasions and that all of their letters had gone answers.

The Auditor General’s Office has ordered the Finance Ministry to heed the recommendations in the Civil Aviation Authority’s audit report and grant the funds to the authority.

Another matter highlighted in the authority’s audit report include notes that the Civil Aviation Authority had neglected to collect certain license and other overdue fees. It states that the authority is required to inform the Finance Ministry and the Auditor General’s office of their steps to reclaim such overdue funds, but stated that the authority had acted accordingly as a sum of MVR 1,795,307 had accumulated for such overdue fees without being claimed.

The audit report also states that the authority’s incidental reports for trips made within the country and abroad lack the date on which the report was submitted. It stated it is required that all incident reports have to be submitted within three working days of concluding their trips, but the authority’s reports for last year do not indicate the dates that the reports were submitted.

The 2012 audit report of the Civil Aviation Authority states that the Auditor General’s Office believes that the authority had maintained their finances in accordance to the budget granted to them by the parliament, towards meeting the goals and purposes of the granted budget.