Attorney General Ahmed Usham has revealed that the supplementary budgets of previous years were spent unlawfully, prior to receiving approval from parliament, and confirmed that appropriate action would be taken.
During a press conference held yesterday at the President's Office, alongside Minister of Finance Moosa Zameer, Usham emphasized that the Constitution and the Public Finance Act mandate that all expenditures from the State budget require parliamentary approval before they can be executed.
He noted that supplementary budgets must be submitted to parliament one month in advance and must be passed accordingly. Usham stated that, over the past four years, expenditures from supplementary budgets were conducted without prior parliamentary approval.
Recalling his time as an MP for Vilimale', Usham mentioned that he had raised concerns regarding this matter in parliament. In recent years, supplementary budgets have been passed following the insufficiency of the initial State budget. For instance, the final year of the Maldivian Democratic Party's administration saw a supplementary budget of MVR 6.5 billion approved; however, opposition members alleged that the administration had already spent beyond the initial budget before receiving parliamentary approval for the supplementary budget, which the administration denied.
In the same press conference, Finance Minister Zameer announced plans to request a supplementary budget for this year. He estimated that the supplementary budget would be approximately MVR 5 billion but clarified that the final amount would be determined after further discussions with the cabinet and the President.
This year's State budget stands at MVR 49.8 billion.
