Parliament's new minority Party, The Democrats has accused the government of failing to comply with the requirements of the law when compiling the Supplementary Budget it has submitted to the Parliament.
The Finance Ministry announced the MVR 6 billion Supplementary Budget last Wednesday as the government looks to shore up its finances. The Supplementary budget would take the total state budget for the year 2023 to a whopping MVR 49.4 billion.
While the State was unable to officially submit the Supplementary Budget as the Parliamentary session was canceled today, Parliament Minority Leader and MP for Central Henveiru Constituency Ali Azim highlighted the concerns of the Democrats in a letter addressed to the Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed.
Noting that the Supplementary Budget was compiled without conforming to the law, the Democrats said that the Budget did not include State expenditure and income details for the last financial year and also the details of the program budgets from government offices.
The Democrats also said that the Supplementary budget did not include the changes to the financial impact highlighted in the Budget Position report from the Finance Ministry submitted when presenting last year's budget.
The Party further said that if the Supplementary Budget by the Ministry is allowed to be officially submitted to the Parliament, then it would be the begining of a damaging tradition.
The Party then urged the Finance Ministry to reconsider the Supplementary Budget currently submitted and compile one that conforms to the laws of the country.
