Auditor finds minor breaches in FNC budgets

ABU DHABI // The FNC, which has scrutinised the budgets of ministries and federal authorities, has broken budget rules itself, State Audit reports revealed yesterday.

But all of the breaches were minor, the report showed.

It revealed that the council carried costs from the year 2011 into its 2012 fiscal year.

These included Dh131,095 spent changing cameras in the council, Dh50,000 on education fees for children of staff, Dh125,000 to maintain the council's gardens, and Dh178,452 for electricity for the final quarter of 2011.

The UAE Audit Institute urged the council to comply with budget rules and not to carry over spending to the following year. The council agreed with the audit institute.

"The response of the council is that it supports the pressing need to respect the yearly budget, but sometimes faces difficulty in implementing this," the FNC said.

Education expenses were claimed late because the academic year spilled into last year, the members said.

They said that because they had paid the gardening bills for 2010 in 2011, they did the same the following year.

Electricity bills were paid late because there were no statements. The council said members tried to call the authority directly but to no avail.

The FNC speaker, Mohammed Al Murr, said the breaches were small and other ministries committed the same errors regularly. Mr Al Murr added that the council would work on them.

The audit also criticised the council for giving false revenue figures, and asked that the numbers be adjusted. The council agreed to comply.