The Minister of Economic Development Mohamed Saeed has claimed the former government did not make any significant expenditures from state funds for economic recovery after Covid-19 pandemic.
The minister further claimed the former administration did not utilize 50 percent of the foreign grants it received for the recovery efforts as well.
At the panel discussion on Thursday evening, following the presidential address to open the parliament’s 2025 session earlier on Thursday morning, Saeed said the former government did not spend heavily for recovery efforts since it had received over MVR 8 billion for these efforts from foreign entities.
“I believe the [former] government received over MVR 8 billion from various foreign entities, but not even 50 percent of this had been utilized for the efforts. Meaning, the Maldives government was not in need to significantly expend following Covid-19,” the minister claimed.
At the panel discussion, Saeed highlighted on the corruption allegations the previous government faced, and added all government-owned corporations struggled with financial woes at the time the current administration took charge.
Saeed further alleged that several employees of these state-owned enterprises (SOEs) had received inflated paychecks ahead of the presidential election in 2023, which according to the minister, had been vote bribery.
“State-owned enterprises had a collective debt of MVR 9.1 billion. None of these companies had been spared, and we had to face that head on. And moreover, the company payrolls were inflated ahead of the [presidential] election to guarantee the votes,” Saeed added.
The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)-led former government temporarily suspended part of the Fiscal Responsibility Act owing to the economic recess after the Covid-19 pandemic; with one of the key reasons for this suspension being the decision to increase government overdraft.
The then government justified this was a necessary step to ensure Maldives’ economy maintained its momentum.
Saeed also claimed the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) – the central bank – had issued over MVR 15 billion to the former government under various facilities.
Leaders of the current administration have continuously accused Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and his administration for being responsible of Maldives’ current economic woes.