Senior officials from five independent institutions met with the parliament’s budget review committee on Tuesday, seeking an increase in the annual budget for their offices.

Senior officials from Elections Commission, Islamic University of Maldives (IUM), Civil Service Commission (CSC), Maldives National University (MNU) and Department of Judicial Administration (DJA) were summoned to Tuesday night’s committee meeting for questioning.

At the meeting, the Elections Commission official noted that the MVR 105 million assigned to the Elections Commission “was insufficient”, especially the MVR 80 million for next year’s parliamentary election. The official added that they intend to increase the security at polling stations and to increase stations in order to avoid the issue of long lines faced in this year’s presidential election.

Hence, the Commission appealed for an additional MVR 9.2 million.

Chief Dr. Ali Shameem represented CSC at the meeting, and highlighted that the MVR 21.7 million allocated was just enough to pay the salaries of their employees, adding that the amount was 19 percent smaller than requested.

The official from Islamic University of Maldives also expressed several concerns regarding the budget, and requested an additional MVR 40 million including for maintenance and strengthening safety and security services.

However, members of the budget committee had expressed concern over the amount requested by IUM.

Furthermore, while the Maldives National University has been allocated MVR 192 million in the proposed budget, it is seeking an MVR 50 million increase.

While a budget of MVR 420 million was allocated for the judiciary, DJA is seeking an additional MVR 87 million. DJA’s official said that the amount is needed due to the increase in the number of judges and other necessary expenses.

The budget committee will consider their appeals and make necessary amendments, before submitting the state budget to the parliament floor.