The COVID-19 Compliance Audit report of the Maldives National Defense Force has revealed that the armed forces spent MVR 5.2 million to combat the COVID-19 global pandemic.
The report was compiled by the Auditor-Generals Office.
In the report, the Auditor General noted that the expenditures completed by the MNDF were fully compliant with the Public Finance Act as well as other public finance regulations and guidelines set the Ministry of Finance. It said that these funds were spent from January to June of this year.
The report noted that a budget of MVR 17 million was approved for MNDF to back its efforts against the pandemic and out of that only MVR 5.2 million were used.
The report highlighted that most of the expenditure was spent on the fuel needed for sea vessels that were used in the MNDF COVID-19 operations. It said that MVR 3.22 million were spent on fuel while MVR 1 million were spent on building renovations and maintenance.
The report also added that MVR 638,009 was spent to supply the COVID-19 centers hosting MDNF soldiers.
The COVID-19 compliance report for MNDF is considered mild compared to the previous two reports published for the Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Health.
While the report on Ministry of Tourism showed that the ministry authorities have spent millions of rufiyaa on matters beyond its scope of work, the report on the Ministry of Health revealed a shady deal the Ministry and a company from Dubai to procure 75 ventilators.
It revealed a total of MVR 30.9 million had been in advance to Executor General Trading (Dubai) for procurement of 75 ventilators and that to date no ventilator has been delivered to the country.
