Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/811845
7 MATTHEW VELLA AN own-initiative investigation by the National Audit Office in- to the use of government credit cards by officials and ministers has been completed, but remains unpublished. The investigation was com- pleted some 10 months ago, but the NAO has not yet forwarded the inquiry to the Speaker of the House, where it would then be passed on to the public accounts committee. MaltaToday is informed that the audit completed an across-the- board survey of all credit card pur- chases employed by government ministers, with some spends going into the thousands during visits abroad… to minor purchases such as fast-food stopovers. The NAO did not deny the exist- ence of the report when queried as to when it would be published. "The National Audit Office felt that the various investigations mandated to the Office by the Public Accounts Committee or the Minister for Finance should be given the highest priority," a spokesperson for the NAO said – suggesting that the office was only granting those audits requested by the PAC importance. The NAO remains the island's sole independent institution to regularly monitor government spends and egregious use of tax- payers' money. Its annual report is an appointment for journalists to pore over spurious cases of public procurement, direct orders, and general wastage of resources. Undoubtedly, the highlight of last year's annual report was a €318 minibar bill for drinks con- sumed during an official visit to Dubai, where economy minister Chris Cardona gave an address in September 2015. The delegation that spent three nights in Dubai was flagged by the NAO for a hotel bill that included a total of €756 on alcoholic bever- ages – €318 of which were from the mini-bar. After publication of the case, the ministry said that the expenses emanated from the private room of Cardona's chief of staff Mario Azzopardi, who accepted to re- fund the expenses incurred. According to the NAO, the alco- hol spend was a purchase that was "not considered as relating to of- ficial business" but was claimed as travel expenditure. The €758 bill, from a three-day official trip, included €318 from a hotel minibar. Cardona was in Dubai with chief of staff Mario Azzopardi and personal assistant Dana Bonnici. The total amount spent on alco- hol was €438, with the rest of the money charged for meals. The NAO also said that in a trip to the Ukraine, a receipt for the purchase of €296 in personal items, was paid out of the con- tingency money granted to an unnamed travelling officer. The Ukraine trip of 19-24 June 2015, saw the €1,190 accommodation expenses included under both 'hotel bill' and 'other receipts' – an error that resulted in the refund of €327 to the travelling officer, when it should have been the min- istry to be reimbursed €863. The NAO was also irked that a "politically-exposed person" – no name identified – was given ad- vances for use during visits abroad in the form of cash, when other travelling officers received theirs by means of a credit transfer. In nine out of 10 official and ministerial trips reviewed by the NAO for testing, the breakdown of spending failed to include the actual air fares of €29,000, and one three-day trip to Monaco in May 2015 did not include €8,000 in ac- commodation expenses. When the complete invoice for the Monaco trip was requested by NAO to verify the nature of any additional charges, the ministry for the economy said that the full documentation was not available and "probably misplaced". maltatoday, SUNDAY, 16 APRIL 2017 News NAO holding on to audit of ministerial credit cards THE home affairs ministry has refused to comment on a con- troversial €880,000 direct order which the Auditor General has been asked to investigate by the Nationalist Party. The direct order was given to Infinite Fusion Technologies by the Home Affairs Ministry for the upgrading of IT networks at the Corradino Correctional Fa- cility. MaltaToday specifically asked the ministry why the contract was granted by direct order and not by call for public tender, due to the amount charged for the system, and for a complete breakdown of the €880,000 pro- ject, in terms of jobs undertaken and equipment installed. The Finance Ministry told The Times earlier last week that public procurement rules, gave leeway to public authorities to grant such contracts to a com- pany in certain circumstances. Such direct orders could be granted "for technical or artistic reasons or for reasons connected with the protection of exclusive rights", he said. Another direct order worth €35,000 was given to the same company by the Home Affairs Ministry to provide interroga- tion recording equipment in eight police stations. The finance ministry said the direct order was granted on the basis of "extreme urgency". The Auditor General said in his last annual report that direct or- ders should be kept to the "bar- est minimum", in line with pub- lic procurement regulations. All direct orders that circum- navigate the need for a public call for tenders require the Fi- nance Ministry's blessing. The direct orders were criti- cised by shadow home affairs minister Jason Azzopardi, who said the company should have been excluded from public ten- ders because the last time it filed audited financial statements was in 2012. Azzopardi also said in Parlia- ment that the company had no experience in the IT field, and that cabling for sensitive systems within the CCF was normally housed inside the walls, but that Infinite Fusion Technol- ogy would be surface-mounting the cables in galvanised steel trunking – claiming this put the equipment at a greater risk of tampering. No comment from home affairs ministry on controversial €880,000 direct order The home affairs ministry has refused to comment on a controversial €880,000 direct order