Audit: 99% of Tourism Ministry’s COVID-19 spending outside of its mandate

Auditor General’s Office has stated that 99 percent of the expenditure incurred by the Tourism Ministry in response to the coronavirus pandemic was for expenses outside of its mandate.

The Auditor General’s Office released the compliance audit report on COVID-19 spending by Tourism Ministry from January to June this Thursday, and Auditor General Hassan Ziyath noted in his statement that the compliance audit uncovered multiple issues.

According to the report, Tourism Ministry spent MVR 26 million on COVID-19 related expenses during the period, but 99 percent of the spending in question was on expenses which fell outside of the Tourism Ministry’s mandate.

“We note that the majority of spending through the Tourism Ministry’s trust fund in response to COVID-19 related matters does not fall directly under the mandate of the ministry, and there are other state institutions responsible for the expenses in question,” reads the report.

Some of the spending in question includes:

• MVR 7.7 million on procurement of pharmaceuticals and other medical consumables
• MVR 6.9 million to bring in a team of foreign medical doctors to contribute to COVID-19 response efforts
• MVR 2.03 million in additional expenses following the extension of the team’s stay in Maldives
• MVR 6.5 million to build a quarantine facility in K. Vilingilivaru (Vilivaru)
• MVR 2.5 million to install thermal cameras in international airports
• MVR 198,397 to arrange accommodation for helicopter crew
• MVR 92,462 to build a quarantine facility in A. A. Velidhoo
• MVR 118,842 for accommodation and repatriation of tourists left stranded following closure of borders

The audit report states that while spending through the Tourism Ministry’s trust fund must be authorized by the fund steering committee, not all of the spending was authorized by the committee. While the committee discussed and passed decisions declaring some of the spending which can be authorized, the committee did not pass decisions on amounts for individual spendings.

The Auditor General noted that the committee, during its third meeting, issued a blanket approval to “spend on whatever necessary in connection to COVID-19”, without any discussion on individual expenses, and that failure to fix amounts opens room for spending which contradicts the purpose of the fund and misappropriation of funds.

“In addition to the Tourism Ministry not being directly responsible for managing such health crises, this office does not find the decision to allow such open spending of funds in the trust fund to be responsible,” reads the report.

The Auditor General’s Office also found that work on procurement had been carried out before a limit on total spending through the trust fund had been established.