Parliament has taken an unusual step of asking the government to resubmit its MVR 6.5 billion supplementary budget, citing a lack of details required under the Public Finance Act.
The budget, initially submitted last Wednesday, was slated for discussion in Tuesday’s parliamentary sitting, which had to be adjourned due to a lack of quorum. The item was notably absent from Wednesday’s parliamentary agenda.
Hassan Ziyau, Parliament Communications Director, told local media that the Finance Ministry had already been instructed to include the necessary details as stipulated by law. Despite this, the Ministry resubmitted the budget without the requisite information for a second time.
Speaker Mohamed Nasheed has now sent an official letter to the Finance Ministry requesting them to comply with the law and resubmit the budget, complete with all legally required details.
This rejection comes on the heels of warnings from the Democrats. Ali Azim, the parliamentary group leader of the Democrats, had earlier voiced concerns over the legality of the budget.
In a letter to Speaker Nasheed, Azim stated that the supplementary budget “was prepared and presented not in accordance with the rules set out in the law.” He had also pointed out the lack of information on past-year expenditures, revenue details, and specific allocations for programmes.
The government’s proposed supplementary budget chiefly aimed to augment spending in several areas. An additional MVR 1.8 billion was allocated for subsidies, the national health insurance programme was set to receive an extra MVR 1.2 billion, and a further MVR 1.7 billion was earmarked for Public Sector Investment Projects (PSIPs).