Vaavu atoll council President Shujau Ali has warned that there is no budget to pay salaries of employees after the first three months of the year.
The salary of employees are arranged through the administrative budget provided by the government to atoll councils.
In a post on social media X yesterday (January 20), Shujau said the Local Government Authority (LGA) has informed councils about the lack of budget.
The Finance Ministry and Local Government Ministry said they are looking into ways to arrange the budget.
“The government should be able to pay the salaries of the council office civil servants in the same way the government pays its political appointees," Shujau said.
Some councils said this would force atolls to spend development budget on salaries and create major obstacles to social and economic projects.
President Mohamed Muizzu claimed to champion decentralization, but has decided to abolish atoll councils and have a government appointee to run the offices.
