Audit Office says fire destroyed Housing Ministry server, documents related to MVR 120 million lost

The Audit Office has stated that documents related to the 120 million rufiyaa spent by the Ministry of Housing in 2023 are not available, as a server belonging to the Ministry was completely destroyed in a fire that broke out on December 12, 2024, in two buildings operated by three government ministries. According to the audit report for the Ministry of Housing covering 2018 to 2023, which was issued today, the fire incident caused the Ministry's server to be completely damaged, and the financial records stored therein were lost to such an extent that they cannot be recovered. "The audit report notes that since no backup copy of the financial records was kept outside the ministry building at the time this incident occurred, the documents stored in the server could not be recovered," it stated. As a result, documents related to the 6.5 million rufiyaa spent by DNR in 2023 were not received for audit. This includes missing documents such as bid proposals related to expenditures, bid evaluation sheets, and records of decisions made by the bid committee. "Note that the documents related to the expenditure of Rf 114,205,149 incurred by the ministry as salaries were not provided to the auditors. As a result, it is not confirmed whether these expenditures were made from public funds in accordance with public finance regulations," the audit report states. The fire in the two buildings burned at various points in the ceiling. Therefore, the investigation stated that it was difficult for the military firefighters to locate and extinguish all the areas. The police revealed that the investigation noted that electrical issues had previously existed in the Geometry Department of the Ministry of Housing.