Auditor raps minister over €756 alcohol spend in Dubai

A delegation from the economy ministry that spent three nights in Dubai back in September 2015 has been flagged by the National Audit Office for a hotel bill that included a total of €756 on alcoholic beverages – €318 of which were from the mini-bar.

Not bad for what was Chris Cardona’s attendance at the Malta Day celebrations held in Dubai on the 51st anniversary since Malta achieved its independence. “Events like these will help cement the already strong ties which exist between our respective countries,” Cardona had said in his speech reported by the Department of Information.

According to the NAO, the alcohol spend was a purchase that was “not considered as relating to official business” but was claimed as travel expenditure.

Cardona is Labour’s deputy leader for party affairs, and one of the PN’s favourite targets, since ominously telling supporters at a general conference that he would throw “a hatchet for every dagger” thrown at him… metaphorically of course.

The NAO also said that in a trip to the Ukraine, a receipt for the purchase of €296 in personal items, were paid out of the contingency money granted to the travelling officer.

Additionally, 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 ministry to be reimbursed €863.

The NAO was also irked that a “politically-exposed person” – no name identified – was given advances 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 accommodation 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”.

And the post-travel submissions form for the Monaco trip was not even traced to file, because the ministry did not compile it before the NAO’s request.

The NAO was even suspicious of misplaced items from the ministry located at Palazzo Zondadori and the Millennia Building where other offices are hosted, saying in five instances the quantity of assets as recorded in the inventory differed from what was found on site: three paintings were said to be missing and a number of paintings were found in a store.

In its response to the NAO, the ministry for the economy said it would be taking necessary action to recoup the overpayment to the person travelling to Ukraine, and that it “will try to limit the amount of cash advances”, and also ensure bills from official business are provided in the English language.