Small budgets - Independent Institutions

The biggest grievance of the Independent Institutions is that they are not allowed the proposed budgets to finance their activities. At the same time, the biggest objection by the Ministry of Finance is that the Independent Institutions propose unreasonably large budgets every year.

Finance Minister Abdullah Jihad said, when summoned to the Parliamentary Budget Committee, that the amount the Independent Institutions propose has to be allowed, and that the Ministry has no control over the way they spend the money. He said that the Independent Institutions sometimes act as if they are separate governments with their own set of laws.

“We have to award the Auditor General the amount that was increased by the Majlis. We have no power over it. They demand that budget has to be granted. We then have absolutely no control. We have to grant it,” said Jihad.

While this is the nature of the grievances expressed by the Ministry of Finance,the concerns of Independent Institutions also remain unchanged. Heads of Independent Institutions were summoned to the Parliamentary Budget Committee to air their side of the story. Their principal complaint is the same–that the budget awarded is too small and that it is impossible to work with such a small budget.

Abdullah Didi, the President of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) who is also a High Court Judge, said that the a budget of MVR30 million was submitted to the Finance Ministry and that the Ministry had drastically changed and reduced the budget. He said that he doubts if the JSC can work effectively in the coming year.

“A large sum of our budget is spent on employees. After we deduct that amount, we only have two million left to do anything else. We’re uncertain if we’d be able to able to carry out our legal responsibilities,” said Abdulla Didi.

Other Independent Institutions have grievances similar to JSC’s. The principal complaint by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) is that although they are an institution that carries out very large responsibilities, the budget allowed to them is one of the smallest of all Independent Institutions. CSC member Khadheeja Adam said that even though they reduced their budget significantly prior to submitting it to Finance Ministry, the Ministry had cut it down even further when it was proposed to Parliament.

“We cannot effectively carry out activities such as training's for Civil Servants because of this. From the way it is now, we have to reduce our activities significantly. We minimized a lot of things when we submitted the budget in the first place. We cannot do the things we are obligated to do, with this budget,” said Khadeeja Adam.

Commissioner General of Taxation Mohamed Riyaz represented Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) at the Budget Committee meeting. He said that a large part of MIRA’s budget has also been reduced and that it will be difficult to conduct the necessary trainings and other awareness programs next year.

“We don’t know what to say about this budget. We sent a reduced budget in the first place,” said Riyaz.

The main concerns of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and Elections Commission (EC)were the same. The President of ACC Hassan Luthfee said at the Committee yesterday that they need a budget of MVR38 million but that they have submitted a budget of MVR26 million following Finances Ministry’s request to cut it down. He said that Finance Ministry assured him that they will allocate a budget to the amount that was requested.

“Even though they promised, we did not get it. About 10 percent has been removed. We can make do only if we get the budget we submitted to Finance Ministry. Only then can we accomplish our mandates to the fullest,” said Luthfee.

The Elections Commission (EC) official present at the Committee said that about MVR32 million has been reduced from the budget they proposed and that this was done without any consultation. He said next year is an election year and that the consequent result would be them not having enough money to spend on arranging elections.

“We will have difficulties setting up elections. Therefore we have to amend the budget to prevent difficulties,” the official said.

The total budget for next year is MVR16.9 billion. From this, an amount of MVR1.2 billion has been allocated for Independent Institutions. There are 18 Independent Institutions financed by the state budget. An 18-story office complex has also been included, to be constructed for Independent Institutions, through the PSIP program.