by Ahmed Naish
Minivan News brings you the second part in a breakdown of a 29-page auditor general report on Theemuge, the palace of the former president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
The auditor general has advised the government to recover public funds, unaccounted for, following the construction of the presidential palace in 1994 and retrieve any assets purchased for personal use from the Theemuge budget.
An audit report of Theemuge for 2007 and 2008 released last week notes the construction project, which began in 1992, exceeded its budget by US$1.7 million, while records of changes to the project were not kept.
The report describes management of the project as "carelessly incompetent" due to the lack of proper documentation and records of expenditure.
According to official documents, the palace was constructed at a cost of Rf207 million (US$17 million), with Japanese company, Mitshui Corporation, paid Rf107 million (US$9 million) for construction of the buildings.
The main three-storey building in Theemuge has seven rooms, carpeted and made from marble, as well as a swimming pool, a badminton court, a gym, a private office for the president, two large halls for parties and events and a small observatory on the roof.
The section of the audit report on the construction of Theemuge adds that although five foreign contractors were ostensibly hired for interior decoration and paid a fee of US$5 million, no copies of the contracts were to be found.
The report further questioned the role of the Maldives Government Trading Company (MGTC) in Singapore for making payments, noting the possibility that outside parties could have received money as the auditor general's office was unable to verify whether companies had been hired or paid.
"Our repeated request for information has been unsuccessful as neither Theemuge nor MGTC seems to have documents related to these expenses," the report reads.
Further, construction material and machinery imported for the project has disappeared, including more than Rf3 million (US$233,463) worth of machinery.
The report slates former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom for removing items he believed were his "personal property" when leaving Theemuge after his defeat in the October 2008 presidential election
In addition, a "fixed asset register" was not kept and Gayoom did not follow best practice by making lists of items he was taking with him.
The report states the issue was highlighted because a large number of material goods were purchased from the Theemuge budget for either the president's or his family's personal use and the auditor general's office has reason to believe many such items were taken from the palace.
The report accuses palace officials of "gross negligence in maintaining accounts" due to the lack of records showing purchases made from the budget for personal use.
"There is no way of knowing what was taken because no 'personal belongings' were to be seen in Theemuge after the president left."
Please check back later for more articles on the audit report.
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