Parliament agrees to increase the allowances of atoll council vice presidents

The Parliament on Wednesday has passed the report formulated by the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts – to increase the allowances allotted to vice presidents of atoll councils.

The report stipulates that vice presidents of atoll councils would be provided an allowance of MVR 1,000 – in addition to their salary, living allowance, and sitting allowance.

It was passed unanimously by the 41 members who took part in the vote.

Subsequently, the allowance will be provided starting from next January.

The decision to increase the allowances of vice presidents at atoll councils was included in the report – as some of the parliamentarians had suggested revising the initial report submitted by the Committee after reviewing the salaries and allowances of council members – in light of the eighth amendment brought to the Decentralization Act.

The parliamentarians had suggested this revision as salaries and the allowances of a vice president and other members of atoll councils had been the same amount – citing that they believed there should be a difference.

A vice president of an atoll council is selected from the council presidents of the islands in that particular atoll. The atoll council is comprised of council presidents of all islands in an atoll – hence, the decision to increase the salary and the allowances of the vice president was made as if otherwise, all of their salaries would be the same.