Finance Committee Approves MVR 133 Million Audit Office Budget Without Changes

The Finance Committee of the People's Majlis has approved the MVR 133 million budget submitted by the Auditor General's Office for next year, without any cuts or additions. The Audit Office submitted its budget for the year 2027 to the Majlis last Monday, sharing with the Finance Committee the details of its planned expenditure and the audits it intends to carry out next year. The budget submitted to the committee includes MVR 85.8 million as recurring expenditure, MVR 4.2 million as capital expenditure, and MVR 43.5 million for PSIP projects, bringing the total to MVR 133,590,265. While presenting the budget, Auditor General Hussein Niyaazi said the office has decided to conduct 394 audits next year. He said these include many audits related to state institutions, government companies and financial institutions, as well as unfinished audits carried over from this year. The audits planned for next year are: financial and compliance audits of 61 state institutions; 106 local council audits; 6 audits of Public Fund and Scheme; 22 audits of projects implemented with foreign aid; 40 audits under the financial audits of state companies; 4 audits under financial institutions; 5 audits required under the Budget and Fiscal Transparency Law; 3 audits covering state debt and guarantees; 6 performance audits; 8 special audits; 7 audits of information systems; 6 environment-related audits; and 120 audits left incomplete from this year. The Auditor General noted that the Majlis allocated MVR 134.2 million to the Audit Office for this year. Of that amount, MVR 56.9 million has been spent so far, MVR 45 million is still to be spent, and MVR 31 million will remain unspent by the end of the year. He said next year's budget has been planned taking this into account. At the Finance Committee meeting held to study the budget, Funaadhoo constituency MP Mohamed Mamdouh moved to approve the budget as submitted by the Audit Office without any further changes. Members who took part in the meeting unanimously supported the motion and passed that it is appropriate to approve MVR 133 million as the Audit Office's budget.