Covid-19 response efforts: health expenses reach MVR 1,275m

The total spending for Covid-19 response efforts in the health and social sector sat at 1,275.1 million by September 17.

The Ministry of Finance revealed that this is a 4.3 percent increase from the previous week.

According to the latest figures of the Covid-19 weekly expenses publicized by the ministry on Monday, during the one-week period, 52.1 percent of total health and social spending was committed spending and in terms of week-on-week increment, the disbursement of front-line allowances for Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) and Maldives Police Service (MPS) officers stood out among all expenses covered.

A total of MVR 44.6 million was disbursed to frontline workers within the week, revealed the ministry.

Further, the Ministry of Health spent MVR 6.4 million on medical consumables, catering and operational services related to response efforts.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), health ministry and Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) remains the top contributors, accounting for 88.3 percent of all expenses towards health and social efforts pertaining to the pandemic, as at September 17.

Since the Covid-19 recovery efforts began, NDMA has spent a total of MVR 856.9 million out of which 362.8 million was to acquire supplies and requisites for service provision, MVR 112.5 million for capital equipment as well as MVR 101.4 million for operational services.

The health ministry spent a total of MVR 196.8 million out of which a majority was spent to procure supplies and requisites for service provision, approximately MVR 87.2 million. Other areas include capital equipment for which the ministry spent MVR 78.1 million by September 17. MVR 18.4 million was spent on operational services as well.

IGMH covered MVR 71.9 million of the expenses, out of which MVR 63.1 million was to procure supplies and requisites for service provision, 4.3 million for capital equipment and 2.7 million for supplies and requisites.

Further, out of the MVR 39.9 million covered by MNDF, 24 million was allowances for employees, 12.8 million was for supplies and requisites and 2.6 million for repairs and maintenance. The authority also spent MVR 400,000 on capital equipment.

Having contributed MVR 37.3 million for health and social expenses, the Ministry of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure spent 36.9 million for land and buildings and MVR 400,000 for supplies and requisites.

MVR 10.3 million out of the MVR 28.7 million covered by the Ministry of Tourism under its Tourism Activities Implementation Fund were for operational services and the ministry also spent 4.8 million for repairs and maintenance and 7.3 million for supplies and requisites for service provision. 2.9 million was spent for travel expenses while 1.6 million was covered for capital equipment.

The government spent a total of MVR 523.2 million in supplies and requisites for service provision, MVR 198.2 million in capital equipment as well as MVR 132.3 million for operational services.