Civil Court issues interim order forbidding payment of Committee allowance

The Ministry of Finance should not release funds for the payment of the self-fixed MVR 20,000 per-month Committee allowances to Members of the People’s Majlis, said an interim order issued by the Civil Court today.

The Order said that Committee allowances, self-fixed by the Members of the Parliament, should not be paid unless the deductions from the salaries of the civil servants are reimbursed. The Order was issued on the grounds that the allowance, if paid, would cause irreversible damage to the claimant, Maaj Jabeen, Penzeemage, S. Maradhoo. Hence, the allowances would be withheld unless a final judgment is arrived at in the case filed by Maaj Jabeen.

The claimant’s counsel argued at the hearing today, that payment of Committee allowances to Majlis Members without reinstating and reimbursement of the deduction levied on the salaries of civil servants a long time ago, would be a violation of Article 20 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality of all citizens, and also the right of fair and reasonable administrative action guaranteed by the Constitution as well. As such, the counsel argued that the civil servants who had been deprived of a considerable proportion of their wages were entitled to reimbursement before Majlis Members get their monthly Committee allowances.

Financial Committee of the People’s Majlis passed a resolution, stipulating that Members of the Majlis would be entitled to a monthly allowance of MVR 20,000 for their work in the Majlis Standing Committees. The amount is well way more than double the amount that a civil servant gets per month on average, and that allowance is in addition to a monthly salary of MVR 62,500, also self-fixed by Members of the Majlis. Together with the allowance, MPs would get MVR 82,500 per month, which is more than the annual total salary received by a huge majority of the civil servants of the country.

The Financial Committee of the People’s Majlis decided last month, that Committee allowances for the seven months that preceded would also be given to all MPs, on a lump sum basis, entitling every one of them to an MVR 140,000 reimbursement. Much public dissatisfaction and condemnations have followed these decisions, although the Majlis, except for a handful of members who have stated that they would not take the allowances, has not taken such public sentiment into consideration. President Mohamed Nasheed, who had vehemently defended his government’s decision to withhold a considerable portion from the salaries of civil servants for years, despite repeated requests of the Civil Services Commission and a court judgment supporting the position of the civil servants, had recently expressed his support to pay Committee allowances to MPs as decided by the Financial Committee of the Majlis.