Parliament's Public Accounts Committee to summon Governor Hashim

The Public Accounts Committee of the parliament has decided to summon Governor Ali Hashim to the committee's meeting scheduled for today, to inquire about the country's financial situation.

The governor is being summoned to the committee meeting, which will be held at 11:00 am local time, because the committee's member MPs want to clarify the country's financial situation in light of the current delicate state of its economy.

Governor Hashim will be accompanied by Deputy Governor Ahmed Imad and Assistant Governor Idhuham Hussain, local reports confirm.

While Governor Hashim is set to be summoned to the Public Accounts Committee, a motion to dismiss Hashim as governor was also forwarded to the same committee on 2nd July. However, it is yet to be put on the agenda, and does not concern the meeting to be held today.

According to central bank Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) Act, the appointment and dismissal of both the governor and deputy governor has to be carried out by the president on the advice of the parliament. As per this clause, Deputy Speaker of the parliament and MP of Dhigurah constituency Ahmed Azim moved to start the process of removing Hashim as governor.

Some points highlighted by Nazim include

- The governor indirectly controlled loans issued to the public by banks and financial institutions and pushed to hold bank reserves at MMA.

- As such, with less money circulating the economy, economic activities came to a halt and the economy's pace slowed down.

- While the government currently generates funds from the domestic market, the governor fails to regulate this market despite a dire need for it.

- Information shared by Police and the Ministry of Homeland Security on the challenge of crime prevention which includes MMA's regulations not having been updated.

Nazim said that in this moment when the country's economy is facing difficulties, it has been observed that MMA has been unable to fulfill the obligations as per the MMA Act, and that the monetary policy is not being implemented as it should have been.

Nazim further said that Hashim had not sufficiently provided advice to the government on related matters since it came into office.

"Hashim has not fulfilled his obligations as Head of MMA," he said.

According to the current administration, the state's expenses and debts are at an all time high due to former president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's government failing to implement cost cutting measures despite recommendations from the Ministry of Finance.

However, the current administration is now working to reduce state expenses which includes slashing the number of political appointees and holding back on national level events.