Former Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer today called on the government to disclose financial records as soon as possible without coming up with excuses to submit the supplementary budget.
Ameer told Adhadhu that while about MVR 50 billion had been spent from the state budget this year, projects in the islands had stopped. He said the government was making excuses without disclosing financial records to submit the supplementary budget.
"The budget has been exhausted but nothing has progressed in Maldives. People say all projects on all islands have stopped. Almost all sectors have stopped. A budget of MVR 50 billion was exhausted and the reasons for the supplementary budget should be explained. They talked about everything else to confuse the people," he said.
Noting that the state's fiscal policy for the past five years has been conducted in accordance with the Public Finance Act and Rules, Ameer said enough time had passed to investigate any issues and disclose financial records.
"If the statistics have not been published for several months since June, it is a big problem. It shows the incompetence of [the government]. Enough time has passed to investigate whatever that needs to be investigated and disclose the statistics," he said.
Ameer said the budget process in Maldives is in such a way that the bills at the end of the term are paid off by the incoming government.
He noted that the bills pending during the government of President Abdulla Yameen were paid off after President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih assumed office. About MVR 3 billion was included in the 2019 budget to pay those bills, Ameer said.
"When the MDP government took over in 2018, some bills were unpaid. We didn't make it an issue and we included about MVR 3 billion in the 2019 budget to pay debt and posted bills. That is how it has been done because of the budget process of Maldives," Ameer said.
Ameer had earlier forecast the state budget for this year to reach MVR 57 billion. That is an increase of MVR 8 billion to the approved state budget. He cited the delay in fiscal reforms, increased government spending and the increase in the number of political employees as reasons.
Finance Minister Zameer today announced that a supplementary budget will be submitted to the Parliament and said that the budget is expected to be around MVR 5 billion.
