Committee passes to restore provision of car allowance to ministers

The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee has passed to restore the provision of car allowances to eligible officials of the executive branch, including ministers and heads of independent institutions.

This motion was passed at a meeting today with seven votes in favour, by six members of Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and one member of Maldives Development Alliance (MDA). Committee members representing Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and Jumhooree Party (JP) voted against the motion.

The provision of car allowance, consisting of MVR 6,500 as driver’s salary and MVR 1,000 as petrol expense, was cancelled in December 2012.

Following committee’s decision today to restore this allowance, the motion will be sent to the parliament for approval.

A detailed report on executive branch expenditure between January and November 2013 was provided by the Parliament Secretariat to the committee, for its assessment.

Referring to this document, Maradhoo MP Ibrahim Shareef said that despite the cancellation of the car allowance, state funds were used illegally by the respective officials to cover car expenses last year.

Chairperson of Public Accounts Committee, Vilimale’ MP Ahmed Nihan Hussain Manik responded that there was no proof of any illegal expenditure in the documents provided by the Parliament Secretariat.