The Auditor General's Office has submitted to the parliament a budget of MVR 123 million for the year 2024.

Last year, the Audit Office had a budget of MVR 93 million. However, the budget has increased past MVR 100 million to account for the relocation expenses of the office.

Sharing information on the budget at today's meeting of the Finance Committee of the Parliament, senior officials of the Audit Office said that one of the reasons for the increase in the budget for next year is to hire seven additional employees in addition to providing dependent allowances for their employees. MVR 11 million has been added to the budget for that.

Speaking on the budget at the committee meeting, Auditor General Hussain Niyazi said the decision to increase the salaries of employees has not yet been submitted to the Finance Ministry.

He said the salaries of the office's employees have not changed since 2008 despite small increments. Due to the low salaries, he said it has been difficult to retain employees.

He said the director of the office also receives MVR 30,000 per month and has to complete between 50-60 audits. However, internal auditors of SOEs are offered a minimum salary of MVR 45,000 which has led to the loss of very good audit office staff.

According to the Audit Office's budget shared with the Finance Committee today, next year's recurrent expenditure is MVRR 82 million. Of this, MVR 56 million is salaries.