Saleem: Independent institutions deprived of adequate budget for they may work independently

Parliament’s minority leader, Eydhafushi MP Ahmed Saleem (Redwave Saleem) has stated that the incumbent administration is not allocating adequate budget for independent institutions because they may work independently.

Speaking at a press conference held by the opposition coalition today to raise concerns regarding the government-proposed budget for next year, Saleem said that providing an adequate budget for independent institutions is absolutely capable within the proposed budget for next year – adding that the government will not however, do this.

“Independent institutions are not provided adequate budget because they might independently work. The little allotted to them is not even given to them. The amount given now is at the hands of the Finance Minister. When giving it to offices, it will be just enough for daily expenses,” he had said.

Speaking further, Saleem alleged that the government acts in this manner as there are corruption ideologies within the government. He also added that there was no purpose in allocating huge budgets to commissions borne by the government under its own agenda.

“They are forming all sorts of commissions under all sorts of names in order to give jobs to activists. So, it is likely that they will form additional commissions to give them jobs,” he had said.

Saleem also said that the opposition will be voting for the budget – adding that they did not wish to obstruct the rights of people by not voting. However, all members of the opposition coalition have stated that the budget which will be passed for next year will be passed at a great deficit. The coalition assured that they would keep this in mind when it comes to voting on the budget.

‘PEOPLE WANT TO MOVE FORWARD WITH DEVELOPMENT, NOT EXHUME CORPSES’

PNC’s Deputy Leader, Maavah MP Mohamed Saeed also spokes at today’s press conference. In this regard, he said that what the people want today is development and not investigating the cases of the past.

Saeed detailed that the government’s budget is based on the things which have been borne by the government. On this note, he said that the government’s expenditure on commissions formed by the government for its own purposes, is very high.

“I can give you an example. You all would have heard of Ombudsperson’s Office. The office was formed by President Solih to investigate all injustices from Mohamed Ameen’s era, up until today. The Office has buildings comprising of three to four floors,” he detailed.

Saeed stressed that MVR 15 million is being spent on the Office despite its only purpose being to investigate injustices that had taken place up to date. He added that the expenditure on people, however, is comparatively low.

“People are not interested in finding out what happened in Mohamed Ameen’s life. Not interested in exhuming corpses and finding out their issues. People want to move forward. Move forward with development,” he had said.