Budget Committee recommends to stop Nexbis Border Control System project

The Parliament Budget Committee has included a recommendation in the Budget Committee Report, to notify to stop the MVR2.5 billion Border Control System project carried out by Malaysian company Nexbis.

The Budget Committee Report, which has now been sent to Parliament Members, states that the government should be notified to annul its agreement made with Nexbis on 17 October 2010, as this project was not awarded in a manner most advantageous to the government.

The Parliament Public Accounts Committee had also earlier recommended notifying the government to terminate the Border Control System project Agreement. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had accused the project of involving corruption, and attempted to halt it on several occasions. However Immigration Department has not complied with any of these notifications.

The Budget Committee has recommended to remove all expenditure and revenue included in the budget in relation to Nexbis Border Control System project.

The Budget Committee, after review, decided to cut down the MVR16.9 billion budget by MVR1.1 billion, thereby reducing it to MVR15.3 billion. This was achieved by reducing government employees’ overtime wages by 50 percent to MVR115 million, transport expenses by 50 percent to MVR90.3 million, office operational items expenses to MVR127.32 million, office operational services by 35 percent to MVR451.7 million, staff training expenses by 30 percent to MVR29.58 million,renovation costs by 50 percent to MVR101.25 million, and purchase of assets to MVR102.03 million.

The Committee did not recommend deducting any money from the PSIP codes, instead, decided to allocate additional MVR349 million deducted from other areas, to PSIP projects.

The government’s propositions for increasing revenue include imposing GST on communication services, revising import duty, and leasing 14 islands for resort development. These suggestions were supported by the Committee. The government also proposed to continue bed tax, however the Committee recommended to abolish this tax from next year onwards, and to increase TGST to 15 percent.

Chairman of the Budget Committee Gasim Ibrahim presented the report to the Parliament today. MPs will hold a debate on the report before they vote on passing it.