Gov’t to Investigate “Financial Misconduct” by Former Administration

The government has announced an investigation “financial mismanagement” by the previous administration following concerns over discrepancies in budget reporting.

In a press conference held at the President’s Office today, Finance Minister Moosa Zameer said that the former administration had recorded expenses from one fiscal year in the following year’s budget, causing significant inconsistencies.

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“The issue stems from recording expenses related to projects in the wrong financial year,” Zameer explained. He noted that the discrepancies primarily involve projects funded by international sources.

Attorney General Ahmed Usham claimed that the previous administration had repeatedly engaged in this practice, saying that it breached both the Constitution and the Public Finance Regulation.

“Violations of Article 96 of the Constitution have occurred. There are also breaches of the Public Finance Regulation. We will investigate those responsible and pursue legal action,” Usham stated.

Former finance minister Ibrahim Ameer responded to the allegations by describing them as efforts to distort the reality from the public.

“You could submit a supplementary budget without distorting the facts like this. A year into this administration, no development projects have commenced. Economic activity has stalled, island economies are stagnant, and fishermen are being neglected.” he said in a post on X.

“The truth is being concealed because, despite high government spending, no significant projects are being delivered. The MVR 49.9 billion budget has been exhausted, benefiting only those in political positions and activists within state-owned companies. Enough time has passed for a thorough review and publication of all relevant statistics.”