The government’s “Weekly Covid-19 Spending Report” has revealed that the total expenditure on the Covid-19 response efforts has reached MVR 873.3 million.

According to the “Weekly Covid-19 Spending Report” publicized by the Ministry of Finance as of May 14, the total amount stood at MVR 873.3 million, which is a 7.3% increase compared to the previous week, where MVR 814.2 million was spent.

Finance Ministry revealed that the week-on-week increment of MVR 59.1 million is primarily linked to the increased spending by NDMA on medical consumables as well as supplies and requisites.

NDMA contributed to the 32% surge in supplies and requisites observed within the week, through increased expenditure on fuel and meals for staff.

The Tourism Ministry provided pay for doctors.

The report further notes that 56.4% of the total expenditure comes through committed spending.

Out of the total of MVR 665.2 million spent by the NDMA through their domestic budget in committed spending, a majority was spent on procuring supplies and requisites for service provision, which was at MVR 351.1 million. The authority also spent 129.3 million on capital equipment, 26.3 million was spent on supplies and requisites, 17.5 million in grants, contributions and subsidies as well as 26.9 million for land and buildings.

The authority also spent 84.1 million in grants, contributions and subsidies through their Disaster Management Fund.

NDMA spent MVR 581.1 million by business area and trust fund.

The Health Ministry's committed spending remained unchanged within the two weeks. As such, the ministry spent a total of MVR 135.7 million out of which 69.2 million was spent on procuring supplies and requisites for service provision, 62.3 million on capital equipment and 1.2 million on operational services. Further, the ministry has spent one million on repairs and maintenance, 1.1 million for supplies and requisites as well as 0.8 million for travel expenses.

Coming in at third, the Ministry of National Planning and Infrastructure spent a total of 28 million out of which 27.8 million was spent for land and buildings with the remaining being spent on supplies and requisites.

Up until May 14, the Ministry of Tourism had spent a total of 26.9 million for Covid-19 related efforts through their Tourism Activities Implementation Fund, out of which 17.4 million was for operational services, 1.9 million for travel expenses and 7.3 million was spent on supplies and requisites for service provision as well as 0.2 million as repairs and maintenance.

Further, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spent a total of MVR 6.7 million in committed spending out of which 3.7 million was extracted from their domestic budget and three million from the Zakat fund for grants, contributions and subsidies.

MVR 6.4 million was spent by the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) out of which 0.9 million was for repairs and maintenance while the majority, MVR 5.2 million was spent for supplies and requisites.

By May 14, the state had also spent a total of MVR 428.1 million in supplies and requisites for service provision, 111.3 million in grants, contributions and subsidies, 192.2 million in capital equipment and 54.8 million in land and buildings.

The weekly publication pertains to the “committed spending” on Covid-19 related efforts and is publicized every Monday with the data cut-off date as the Thursday of the following week.