The Maldives government issued around MVR 5 million in income support to ineligible beneficiaries during the COVID-19 pandemic, an audit report discovered.
According to the Auditor General’s Office report, numerous people received income support allowance by filing false claims, totaling more than MVR 4.97 million.
The audit found that only MVR 213,884 of the MVR 4.97 million were recovered through the government’s recovery efforts, and urged the government to recover the remaining MVR 4.76 million.
A total of MVR 421 million has been distributed as income support to 22,946 people whose income and employment were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
From April 2020 through December 31, 2020, income support was paid on a monthly basis. The state had previously identified some individuals who had fraudulently claimed funds from the income support program. Some cases were turned over to the police for additional investigation.
