The Finance Ministry has endorsed a financial plan to reduce expenditure of government offices.

The ministry’s sent a circular to state-operated offices stipulating four steps through which they can reduce expenditure.

• All renovation and overhaul projects pertaining to said offices can be carried out only with the approval of both the President’s Office and Finance Ministry.
• Offices can only move forward with capital expenses that have been approved by either the President’s Office or Finance Ministry and must refrain from making any additional capital expenses.
• Offices that do not require staff to work off-shit must conclude their work by 02:30 pm at the latest, as a measure to reduce expenses in the form of over-time payment.
• To not hold any ceremonial events at the expense of state-operated offices, unless for a cause commemorated nationally.

These stipulations take effect on Wednesday. The Finance Ministry had called on state-operated offices to reduce expenditure last year as well.

The parliament had apassed a budget of MVR 26.8 billion for this year. Out of this, 14 billion was assigned for recurring expenses – 61 percent of it being allocated to payment of state employees.

The amount allocated to recurring expenses have risen by at least 300 percentage in the last 10 years, the central banks records show.