Government logs over a billion in unapproved expenses
Speaker Mohamed Nasheed expressed his displeasure over the submission of a supplementary budget after having spent without the parliament approval.
Government has spent over MVR 1 billion more than the budget approved for the year by the parliament, figures show.
According to the latest revenue and expenditure figures released by the finance ministry, there are already three types of expenditure beyond what was allocated in the budget approved by parliament for the current fiscal. The expenses incurred are:
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1.1 billion spent more than what was approved for administrative and operational activities
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MVR 115 million more than what was approved for PSIP
Without parliament approval, the total expenditure incurred over and above the budget has already reached MVR 1.2 billion.
Administrative and operational costs exceeded the approved budget because of the economic changes brought about by the Ukraine-Russia war. High oil prices and high interest rates in international financial markets are some of the reasons. The areas where administrative and operational costs have increased are:
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Debt servicing costs (Interest) - MVR 2.9 billion
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Asandha – MVR 1.6 billion spent; MVR 730.9 million budgeted
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Subsidies – MVR 3.3 billion spent; MVR 1.4 billion budgeted
The areas where the expenditure on PSIP has exceeded the approved budget include:
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MVR 350 million exceeded on water and sanitation projects
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Additional MVR 167 million has been spent on the construction of ports
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Additional MVR 8.5 million spent on construction of office buildings
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MVR 510 million beyond budgeted amounts spent on land acquisition and road construction
A finance professional, who has also worked in the finance ministry in the past, said that if the expenditure is more than what has been approved in the budget and if the state is aware of the excess, then a supplementary budget should be presented and passed in parliament before increasing the expenditure.
"If there is a sudden increase in expenditure due to an unpredicted incident, it could have been spent without parliament approval, but this time they had the time to present a supplementary budget before increasing the expenditure," he said, speaking to Atoll Times on condition of anonymity.
The government has presented a supplementary budget to the parliament to add an additional MVR 5.8 billion to the budget as the MVR 36.9 billion approved by the parliament for the current fiscal year has failed to meet the expenses.
Speaker Mohamed Nasheed expressed his displeasure over the submission of a supplementary budget after having spent without the parliament approval. However, finance minister Ibrahim Ameer had responded that the amount spent had not exceeded what had been approved and that the supplementary budget was presented for the remaining part of the year.
Budgetary expenditures:
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MVR 32.2 billion – spent so far
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MVR 34.1 billion – approved budget
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94% spent of total budget
Extra MVR 436 million spent from special budget
In this year's budget, MVR 10.5 billion has been allocated for the special budget of the finance ministry. However, the finance ministry has already spent MVR 10.9 billion from this budget. Therefore, an additional MVR 436 million has been allocated from the budget without passing it in parliament.
In addition, the budget of six government offices has exceeded what was approved. These offices are:
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Election Commission has spent MVR 25.3 million more
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Additional MVR 8.1 million has been spent from the defence budget
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Islamic University spent MVR 6.3 million
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An additional MVR 1 billion has been spent from the housing ministry's budget
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MVR 849 million has been spent for the budget of NSPA
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Additional MVR 4 million has been spent on Male Group of Hospitals
With the supplementary budget approved by parliament, the government's expenditure this year will go up to MVR 42.8 billion.
