Finance Ministry Requests Confidentiality on Financial Documents
Ministry of Finance has requested the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament to keep certain information confidential after sharing the government’s expenditure, revenue, and debt policy documents with the committee.
Committee Chairman Maamigili MP Gasim Ibrahim initiated the meeting by announcing that the Finance Ministry had shared three documents related to financial matters. The ministry requested that two of these documents be kept confidential.
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According to Gasim, the documents the Finance Ministry requested to be kept confidential are: a statement indicating the medium-term fiscal strategy or revenue and expenditure policy for the years 2024 to 2026, and a state debt strategy or a statement on how the state will pursue its debt policy.
These documents, requested to be kept confidential under the Public Expenditure Accountability Act, are required to be shared with Parliament by the end of July each year. Among them, the fiscal policy statement must be published in the Government Gazette annually.
The Act aims to promote public awareness of expenditure and revenue policy through the Fiscal Strategy Statement and to provide a means of assessing the government’s measures to achieve its policy objectives. The Debt Strategy Statement aims to provide information on the government’s measures to maintain public debt on strong principles.
Due to the ministry’s confidentiality request, Baarah MP Ibrahim Shujau proposed that the committee’s meeting be kept secret. Initially, four out of eight members supported the motion, resulting in a neutral vote. Upon a second vote, five members voted in favour, deciding to keep the meeting secret.
Previously, the Ministry of Finance had shared these reports with Parliament and published them on its website.
The committee also discussed a document from the Ministry of Finance detailing loans taken by the state up to June this year, including sovereign-guaranteed loans and state-issued loans. This debt-related letter was discussed informally for about 30 minutes with the microphone off.
The Deputy Speaker of Parliament highlighted that the information sent by the Ministry of Finance was incomplete, suggesting the need for further clarification.
He noted that previous figures showed POLCO had received a loan of MVR 700 million. Despite receiving substantial loans for the police flats project, the project remained incomplete, with the state spending more on this project than on regular housing projects.
The proposal for further clarification was unanimously supported by the committee, with no members expressing their views officially on the information sent by the ministry regarding the debt.
