Parliament approves Maldives to join NACA, grants MVR 58 million to Auditor General

Parliament has today approved a MVR 58 million budget for the Auditor General’s Office and given the go-ahead for Maldives to join the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA),

NACA is an intergovernmental organization that promotes rural development through sustainable aquaculture. The organization consists of Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Korea (Democratic People's Repulic), Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

The MVR 61 million budget initially proposed by the Auditor General’s Office was cut down to MVR 58 million by the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee and passed with 61 votes at 1:30 p.m. at the parliament session today.

The committee had also removed MVR 34 million that the Auditor General’s Office had proposed to build and office complex, which was proposed outside the MVR 61 million. The report recommended that the project be pushed back to 2015.

Speaking during the debate for Maldives joining NACA, Maldivian Democratic Party's deputy parliamentary group leader MP Ali Waheed expressed the party’s support for joining the organization and called on the government to closely weigh the costs and benefits of joining international groups.

Parliament concluded the session after declaring that all matters tabled for today had been attended.