Committee proposes to abolish several commissions and establish a National Integrity Commission

The Parliament Public Accounts Committee has decided to advise the government to abolish the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) and the Customs Integrity Commission (CIC) and form a National Integrity Commission to look into issues related to integrity of government employees.

The report sent by the committee to the parliament on revising the state salary structure for next year proposes that a separate commission should be established to look into issues related to integrity of government employees in order to reduce state expenditures. The committee decided to advise the government to revise the law to facilitate the establishment of a separate office for PIC and CIC.

The establishment of a National Integrity Commission was also included in the budget recommendations passed last Thursday. This amendment proposed by Bilaiydhoo MP Ahmed Hamza and supported by Maavah MP Abdul Azeez Jamal Abubakr was voted in favour by 11 MPs and against by 51 MPs.

Nonetheless, if the report submitted to the parliament by the Public Accounts Committee is passed, the government will make a decision on abolishing PIC and CIC and establishing a National Integrity Commission.

The report states that the salary of PIC and CIC members is MVR32,500. They also receive MVR1000 as phone allowance and MVR10,000 as annual premium. The salary of commission president and vice president are MVR37,500 and MVR35,500 respectively. In total, every member receives MVR412,000 yearly, while the president receives MVR472,000 and the vice president MVR448,000.

The report also proposed to solve the problem of phone allowance of senior officials of the government, by establishing MVR1,000 as phone allowance. Any office-related phone calls can be claimed later if the amount exceeds MVR1,000.

This was decided for Supreme Court judges, ministers, parliament members, High Court judges, Superior Court judges, independent institution members, prosecutor general, auditor general, and governor of MMA.

The report will be presented in parliament tomorrow.