Parliament Committee allowance of MVR20,000 for March to be paid

The Finance Committee of the Parliament has today approved providing the MVR20,000 committee allowances to the Members of Parliament for the month of March, during which month no committee meetings were held. It was approved so at the Finance Committee meeting held today as an administrative task once it was brought to the attention of the committee by the Chair of the committee and Bilehdhoo constituency MP Ahmed Hamza.

The decision was taken because no procedure exists on allowance payment if committee meetings are not held for a month within any term of the Parliament, which was highlighted by the finance section of the Parliament Secretariat.

Eydhafushi MP ‘Redwave’ Saleem, Nolhivaram MP Mohamed Nasheed, Alifushi MP Mohmed Nashiz and Hulhu-Meedhoo MP Ilyas Labeeb voted in favour of paying the committee allowance to MPs, while Vilufushi MP Riyaz Rasheed, Vaikaradhoo MP Ali Arif and Kulhudhufushi-North MP Abdul Gafoor Moosa did not vote.

This new approval to provide committee allowances to all the MPs for the month of March will cost the government MVR1.5 million. The Parliament had previously decided that the MVR20,000 will only be provided to MPs with more than a 75 percent attendance to committee meetings.

Several MPs raised concern over the issue which was brought up by the committee especially given that it was not on the agenda and introduced as an urgent matter.

Members also noted that it was not ethical to extort a committee allowance when no committee meetings and no Parliament sittings were held on the month of March.

“I don’t believe in earning a committee allowance while no meetings were held for the month (March). But it was decided that the days will be considered as days the Parliament was in recess and that the committee allowances will be paid. The chair also brought the issue up as an urgent matter and finished it off,” MP Riyaz Rasheed said.

The inaugural session of the Parliament for this year was held on March 19, but regular sessions began only after April 2. The Finance Committee had held six meetings during March 19 to 31 during this period, and is the only set of committee meetings recorded as held within the time frame.

The chair of the Finance Committee is Dhiggaru MP Ahmed Nazim while the Deputy Chairperson is Alifushi MP Mohmed Nashiz, however given both members were not present at the committee meeting, Bilehdhoo MP Hamza was appointed as a temporary chair for the meeting today. Nashiz arrived to the meeting afterwards while Nazim was chairing the Parliament session of today.
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