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Thursday 21 Aug 2025
LOCAL EDITION
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LOCAL EDITION
Security services maintain security in the streets of Male' City on May 13, 2021. (Sun Photo/Mohamed Muzain Nazim)
Statistics show the state spent over MVR 700 million over the course of just three years on the unlimited medical welfare schemes for members of the security services, as well as their immediately family, amid holdups in the implementation of reforms announced by the government.
In the 2025 budget book, the Finance Ministry stated that the current health system is open to easy manipulation, with people able to claim financial aid simultaneously from multiple state-run medical aid programs; the national health insurance service Aasandha, National Social Protection Agency (NSPA)’s medical welfare program, and the separate medical welfare programs run by the Maldives Police Service and the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF).
The ministry also noted that the medical welfare programs by the security services do not have a ceiling, and also cover cosmetic procedures and medical consumables that aren’t generally covered under health insurance schemes.
Back then, the Finance Ministry announced plans to control the spending by replacing the schemes with a universal private health insurance package for the police and MNDF, as well as their immediate family. But police offers and soldiers injured in the line of duty would continue to receive medical care at state expense.
The Finance Ministry had planned to roll out these reforms in the beginning of the year. But no changes have been implemented, with less than four months left until the end of the year.
The spending on medical welfare schemes for security services is now the subject of an inquiry by the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee. Information collected by the committee from the Defense Ministry and the Home Ministry show a year-on-year increase in the cost of funding these schemes, which cover medical treatment in both the Maldives and abroad.
MNDF’s medical welfare scheme:
On soldiers:
On soldiers’ family:
The collective cost of medical care for soldiers and their families over the course of the three years is above MVR 324 million. This includes MVR 52 million in plane tickets alone; MVR 953,072 in 2021, MVR 2.1 million in 2022, and MVR 2.7 million in 2023.
Police’s medical welfare scheme:
The cost of medical care for police officers and their families amounts to above MVR 465 million.
Meanwhile, the state spending on both schemes combined during this period alone amounts to a staggering MVR 789 million.
The increase in spending by police and the MNDF on staff medical expenses is also something that the Auditor General’s Office had expressed concerns over last year.
Other ongoing inquiries by the Public Accounts Committee includes corruption cases linked to welfare corporations run by the police and MNDF.
The state spends heavily not just on medical welfare programs for security services. It also spends billions each year on Aasandha and NSPA. The state medical welfare system, which remains unreformed despite years of pleas by experts, has increased the pressure on the state, already burdened under the weight of mounting foreign debt accumulated to cover cashflow constraints and fund infrastructure projects.
Financial agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have repeatedly called on the Maldivian government to implement fiscal consolidation measures, including reforming subsidies and other aids, and cutting down political appointments.
