The Minister of Finance, Ibrahim Ameer has asserted that appointing a new Expenditure Policy Consultant is not an added expense, as the ministry merely announced to contract a new consultant in line with the resignation of the current one.

The ministry announced its decision to establish an Expenditure Policy Unit under the ministry’s Fiscal Affairs department with a vision to enhance the ministry’s work to manage state expenditure.

Consecutively, the ministry announced its decision to contract the services of a local Expenditure Policy Consultant who will assist the Fiscal Affairs Department of the ministry in conducting analysis, preparing reports and policy briefs to strengthen evidence-based policy-making, on 24 February.

This comes at a time the government has announced its decision to reduce state expenditure and was met with public criticism.

However, the minister responded to criticism by asserting that these expenses are in line with the allocated budget.

The announcement for the position issued earlier this week reads that the consultant is expected to coordinate with other related divisions within the ministry and coordinate closely with the policy-makers to conduct their tasks.

The consultant will be serving a term of one year and the statement highlights 20 tasks under the terms of reference for the position.

People’s Majlis passed a budget of MVR 37.9 billion for the ongoing year, with an estimated expenditure of MVR 36 billion.