The 2020 audit of the Malé City Council has uncovered procurement irregularities in expenditure incurred during the tenure of former Mayor Shifa Mohamed, including projects being split into smaller contracts and quotations being obtained from related businesses.

The audit found the practices were inconsistent with the Public Finance Regulation, which requires public institutions to conduct procurement through fair and competitive processes without manipulating competitions.

The audit revealed that several projects that should have been procured as single contracts were instead divided into multiple packages. These included a labour quarter project, which was awarded through four separate contracts, the vitavl section and cemetery projects, which were each split into two, the Lonuziyaaraiy Park development, which was divided into seven contracts, and the bus stop project, which was awarded through eight separate contracts.

The audit further found that 23 of the 46 payment vouchers below MVR 35,000 reviewed as part of the sample involved expenditure that had been split into separate payments. These transactions totalled MVR 656,162.45, while the total value of the 46 sampled payment vouchers exceeded MVR 1.2 million.

In addition, the audit found that quotations for 27 of the 46 sampled payment vouchers, valued at MVR 732,043.86, had been obtained from related businesses. It defined related businesses as different outlets of the same company or businesses owned separately by shareholders of the same company.