Additional auditing procedures were deemed necessary and a request was made to have all payment vouchers made available for further testing.
The Auditor said it was communicated by Owen Nestor, GMC’s accountant, that none of the other payment vouchers related to the construction of the office building could be found.
It was also communicated by Nestor that Hassan may have been the last person who had requested all of the construction-related payment vouchers. The auditors had recommended that a determination needed to be made as to what level of disciplinary action should be taken and the Board of Directors should instruct GMC’s management to make every effort to locate the missing vouchers.
The auditors, in reporting on his findings to the Finance Ministry, had complained that the process was “deliberately frustrated by the non-response and non-commitment extended by Mr Nizam Hassan, GMC’s General Manager and the lack of commitment by GMC’s accounting department’s staff”.
It was found that many vouchers and back-ups were not provided, either on a timely basis or not at all.
