Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed has questioned whether the expenditure on the national health insurance scheme Aasandha spiked in January due to the MDP Presidential Primary held that month.
He made the remarks during the debate in the parliament on the resolution to provide mental health services through a more well-rounded system.
During the debate, Nasheed said that according to the monthly statistics issued by the Finance Ministry, the expenditure on the health insurance scheme had increased in January of this year compared to January of last year.
He detailed that the government spent MVR 67.9 million on Aasandha in January of 2022 and that it had spent a staggering MVR 283.4 million last month.
The Speaker said that this means the expenditure on Aasandha has increased over four times and that questioned whether this increase was due to the MDP Presidential Primary held on January 28th or whether the number of patients had truly increased.
He added that the parliament must ask these questions.
Nasheed's insinuation comes after his defeat in the Primary to current President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih by a huge margin of nearly 9,000 votes.
The Speaker and his campaign team have previously accused President Solih of misusing state resources in his campaign activtities.
