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Govt says system change behind salaries delay

Government on Wednesday insisted that the delay in paying salaries for state employees was down to a change to an automated system.

Several state institutions had claimed that the monthly salary had not been deposited by the scheduled date.

However, finance ministry said except the Maldives Police Service, the salary for all state employees had been deposited on Wednesday.

A finance ministry official told Avas that each state institution was required to send a check to the central bank for salaries, but under a policy to strengthen the financial system, an automated transfer system had been setup from this month.

The official said delay in receiving the required information for the administrative change had caused the slight delay.

According to government sources, police officers are yet to receive February's pay which was down to the recent change to police pay structure.

"There is no other issue behind the delay. We've changed the system to an automated one to discontinue the use of checks to pay state employees. But all salaries have now been deposited," the official said.

The official also denied rumours of a state cash-flow shortage pointing out that the state had posted record revenue in January.

Ministry also assured that the change to a new system would not cause such delays in future.