Democrats say supplementary budget unlawful over lacking details

The Democrats said on Tuesday the government's supplementary budget, which has been sent to parliament, is illegal as it lacks several legally required details.

A supplementary budget of MVR 6.5 billion was presented last week claiming expenditure will be higher than the budget approved by parliament for this year.

The Democrats parliamentary group leader, Ali Azim, MP for Central Henveiru, said in a letter to Speaker Mohmmed Nasheed on Tuesday that it was illegal.

Referring to the provisions of the constitution and laws relating to the presentation of the budget, Azim said in the letter, "The supplementary budget was prepared and presented not in accordance with the rules set out in the law”.

"Article 32(e) of the Public Finance Act provides that if a request is made for the approval of an additional budget or a supplementary budget, the motion shall be prepared in the manner prescribed in Article 32 of the Finance Act," the government submitted the budget with details incomplete, Azim said.

Azim said:

In addition, Azim noted that, along with the supplementary budget, a report on the economic and financial impact of the upcoming budgets should be submitted.

He wrote in the letter that he considers it important to include details of the expenditure incurred this year to ensure that this year's budget has been spent in accordance with the Constitution.

“... If the supplementary budget sent by the Finance [Ministry] is presented to the Parliament, [it] will become a space for a bad habit to start and be repeated,” Azim said.

"The supplementary budget cannot be submitted to the Parliament unless it is prepared in accordance with the laws referred to”.

Supplementary budget in brief:

The government's supplementary budget was scheduled to be presented in on Tuesday's sitting. However, Tuesday's sitting could not be held due to lack of quorum.