The National Audit Office could not conclude its probe into the first round of COVID-19 vouchers, which cost the government €45 million, because data was missing or incomplete.

The NAO’s own attempt to reconcile the vouchers issued with those redeemed proved “futile”, a new report, published Monday, has revealed.

The office said it had encountered “significant problems” when it was auditing the voucher scheme, which was intended to boost economic activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The vouchers were launched in June 2020. Every resident was sent five €20 vouchers by registered post, four of them to be used in hotels, restaurants and bars, and the other in shops and services such as hair and beauty salons and sports clubs.

Initially, the vouchers’ expiration date was September 30 but it was extended to October 31.

However, the NAO found that payments to merchants for redeemed vouchers continued to be made until at least March of this year.

Audit is inconclusive 

The NAO said its audit of the scheme was inconclusive, primarily because of incomplete data on the number of vouchers issued and redeemed, and also because of the processing of payments to merchants long after the expiration of the scheme.

“Since data continued to change, attempts to carry out reconciliations proved futile. NAO could not reconcile the number of vouchers issued to the aggregate payments made to the merchants and the remaining unclaimed vouchers,” the audit office said.

Malta Investment Management Company Limited (MIMCOL) was the body officially appointed by the government to manage the scheme.

Economy Minister Silvio Schembri addressing a press conference about the voucher scheme.

Audit testing revealed that nearly €850,000 – equivalent to approximately 43,000 vouchers – were paid to merchants after the closing date.

"The data provided to NAO was continuously changing. This hindered audit testing, particularly to carry out reconciliations relating to vouchers reimbursed,” it said in its report.

It said it had planned to obtain fiscal receipts to confirm the merchants’ compliance with the scheme guidelines, issued by MIMCOL, as well as to verify whether all vouchers had been redeemed by the stipulated deadline.

However, the NAO encountered delays in being supplied with the information and the provision of the necessary documentation, leading it to abandon its plan.

“Information relating to the operation of the voucher scheme, obtained during the audit, was at times unclear and in certain instances even contradictory.

Thus, NAO could not ascertain whether the controls in place over the scheme were sufficient and effective and that the voucher scheme had actually progressed as intended,” the NAO said.

The NAO found that payments until mid-April totalled €39,658,543, equivalent to 2,013,124 vouchers.

On the other hand, data extracted from the software utilised to generate and record voucher transactions indicated that 2,009,743 vouchers were redeemed.

This left a discrepancy of 3,381 vouchers, with an aggregate value of €66,606 which was paid to merchants but were not recorded as redeemed.

According to the report, MIMCOL told the NAO that the first round of vouchers had to be implemented within 30 days and that the system was not available off-the-shelf but had to be designed and programmed.

It said that although the voucher scheme was successful, improvements and more administrative processes were implemented for the second round.