Auditor General’s Office: Audits' results aren’t seen as they aren’t acted upon

Auditor General’s Office states the results of internal audits of State-Owned Companies (SOEs) are not seen as they are not acted upon.

Officials from the Auditor General’s Office were summoned to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee on Monday.

Sharing the obstructions faced by the Office during the meeting, Auditor General Hussain Niyazy said experienced auditors employed at the Office are poached by SOEs at high salaries.

Baarah MP Ibrahim Shujau then inquired why there are no improvements to the operations of these companies despite the hire.

Ibrahim Fazeel, Director at the Financial and Compliance Audit Services Division, responded to the query, stating the results of internal audits are not seen due to the failure of the board of directors of SOEs as recommendations made in audit reports are not acted upon.

“The accountability process should be more linear. When audit reports are received, they should be reviewed. I think things will be better if it is acted upon,” he stressed.

Fazeel added that the issue has been raised by a significant number of SOEs.

Monday’s meeting saw extensive discussion on difficulties faced by the Auditor General’s Office when auditing SEOs.

One of the difficulties highlighted by Niyazy in this regard was the failure of some SOEs to properly maintain accounts. He also highlighted difficulties in receiving documents required by the Office when preparing to conduct an audit and in this trajectory, emphasized that there was no legal base for any government entity to conceal documents from the Auditor General’s Office.

The Auditor General’s Office cannot scrutinize government policies. However, they can scrutinize the results produced by the implementation of a policy.