Kudafari Council ordered to reimburse unauthorized attendance allowances

A compliance audit released by the Auditor General’s Office has revealed that the island council of Kudafari island in Noonu atoll, disbursed attendance allowances to its employees in violation of directives from the Civil Service Commission and the Ministry of Finance and Planning.

The audit report has since instructed the council to recover the funds and return them to the state.

The 2024 Compliance Audit Report of the Kudafari Council highlighted that the council had passed a resolution to grant an attendance allowance of MVR 75 per day to administrative staff for each day they reported to work.

The report highlights that this allowance is not included in the standard framework of allowances for civil service employees.

In addition to this, there is no documentary evidence indicating that the council consulted the Civil Service Commission before implementing the payment.

While the council formally requested approval from the Ministry of Finance and Planning to provide the allowance, the ministry explicitly informed the council that it did not recommend or authorize such payments.

Despite this, the council began disbursing the allowance in March 2024. By the audit cutoff date of 7 July 2024, a total of MVR 59,475 had been spent on these unauthorized payments.

As the disbursement of this allowance constitutes an unauthorized act under the State Finance Regulations, the audit report called for an investigation into the matter and recommended measures be taken against those responsible, as stipulated in Article 17.03 of the General Financial Regulations.

The Auditor General’s Office has mandated the recovery of all funds distributed as attendance allowances to date and advised the council to coordinate with the Civil Service Commission and the Ministry of Finance to determine the proper procedure for reclaiming these payments.