Audit reports delayed because he was abroad, says Auditor General

Auditor General Niyaz Ibrahim has admitted that overdue annual audit reports for government institutions are delayed because he has been out of the country.

The Auditor General told Sun today that although work on a number of reports is ongoing, he was been out of the country for over the past month on an official trip to China.

“I was on leave recently because my mother fell ill and then I had to leave to China, came back on the 28th. So the audit reports have been held back because I was not in the country,” Niyaz said.

Niyaz said the law requires the Auditor General to be present in the country for the reports to be published. He said that a number of reports have already been assembled and will soon be published, but he failed to mention a date.

The law requires for the Auditor General’s Office to publish annual audit reports of State institutions within five months from the beginning of every calendar year. However, the office has been behind on publishing the audits, having published just one report on a government office for 2012, with reports from former president Mohamed Nasheed’s government still pending.