Speaker Nasheed enraged, accuses Fisheries Minister of not fulfilling duties

Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed, at Monday’s parliamentary sitting, enraged, accused Fisheries Minister Dr. Hussain Rasheed Hassan of failure to fulfill his duties.

In a written response to a question posed by Central Maafannu MP Ibrahim Rasheed (Bonde) inquiring details of the countries to which Maldives exports frozen fish, the quantity exported and the rejection rates – Minister Hussain stated that rejections rates of fish products exported by local companies do not fall within the purview information sought and recorded by the Fisheries Ministry.

Bonde, expressing discontent over Ministry’s non-record of the rejection rates, said that no other information has to be recorded if rejection rates are not. He stressed that the rejection of hundreds of Skipjack Tunas must be recorded.

“Gets rejected from the cold storage stage. The audit reports note that Skipjack Tunas in many containers are rejected due to cold storage,” he said.

Speaker Nasheed, who was presiding over the sitting, interrupted Bonde’s speech there. Underscoring it was the duty of the respective minister in charge to record the rates, Nasheed highly criticized Minister Hussain for failing to fulfill his duties.  

“I am looking and the duties and responsibilities of ministers as approved by this parliament. Writing, in clear wordings, that these responsibilities are not being fulfilled is a hassle,” he said.

Dr. Hussain holds his post as the Fisheries Minister on a slot of the Jumhoory Party (JP) in the incumbent government coalition.