Audit reports for 2024 are to be issued by June, The Sunday Morning learns, with many still pending or being audited at the National Audit Office (NAO).

The deadline for the NAO to issue the reports is set in May, with the relevant authorities set to send in their reports to the office for auditing within the first two months of the year.

Acting Auditor General Dharmapala Gammanpila stated that there was a three-month delay when taking the process of auditing into account, assuring that reports would be issued by the time June rolled around.

“We have always had issues with staff; usually when we take in say 500 for a year, we have to let go of 100 due to their resigning to seek job opportunities elsewhere,” he said.

However, he said that the auditing process for a large number of reports was currently underway, with the staff split between districts and institutions.

Gammanpila added: “We are conducting our activities as needed. Our progress will be seen after 31 May.”

It was further noted that the Auditor General had issued a considerably lower number of reports in 2024 in relation to previous years.

“Reports that have been audited are sent to Parliament to be tabled. We publish the reports only after that,” Gammanpila explained, pinning the lack of reports on Parliament not having approved the audits yet.

The reports for 2023 have all been audited, prepared, and sent to Parliament as relevant procedure, with the office awaiting confirmation to publish them.

To date, no more than 14 reports have been issued in 2024.