No efforts made to recover over MVR 30m owed to broadcasting commission: audit

The Auditor General has reported that, as of the end of 2023, the Broadcasting Commission failed to take sufficient action to recover more than MVR 30 million owed to the Commission.

The 2023 compliance audit of the now-dissolved Maldives Broadcasting Commission (Broadcom) revealed that Broadcom was owed a total of MVR 30,578,453. However, the audit highlighted that the commission did not implement appropriate measures, as per financial and broadcasting regulations, to recover these outstanding amounts.

The report further indicated that aside from issuing notices to the relevant parties, no additional steps were taken to collect the overdue funds.

According to the audit, the largest amount outstanding is related to re-broadcasting license fees, with MVR eight million in unpaid fees and an additional MVR 6.6 million in penalties. Also overdue are MVR 6.4 million in frequency license fees, along with MVR 4.8 million in penalties. Broadcasting license fees account for MVR 2.7 million and penalties for these fees total around MVR two million.

The audit also pointed out that MVR 18.7 million of the total owed has been overdue for more than three years.

In addition to this, the report noted that although the commission kept records of the outstanding funds, the penalty calculations for non-payment were not always in line with the prescribed penalty guidelines, leading to an overstatement of the penalties by more than MVR 800,000.

The Maldives Broadcasting Commission was established in April 2011 under the Broadcasting Act.