248 political appointees dismissed; system to established to assess performance

The government’s chief spokesperson Heena Waleed states 248 political appointees have been dismissed from their posts so far as part of cost reduction measures announced by President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu.

President Muizzu ordered the dismissal of 228 political appointees as a cost reduction measure on October 15^th.

Heena, via a post on X on Friday, said 248 political appointees have been dismissed from their posts as of October 31^st as part of the government’s economic reform agenda.

This is 20 political appointees in addition to the number announced by the President.

In her post, Heena also revealed the cabinet’s decision to establish a system to assess the performance of remaining political appointees which she said would be implemented “very soon”.

The government had still yet to disclose the total number of political appointees.

While the details of the political appointees who were dismissed have not been disclosed either, President Muizzu, back then, said the 228 political appointees who will be dismissed include seven state ministers, 43 deputy ministers, 109 senior political directors and 69 political directors.

He added that the decision will save MVR 5.714 million per month from the state budget.

During his 2023 presidential campaign, President Muizzu pledged to cap political appointments at 700. However, the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) alleges that this number now stands at over 2,000.

The exact number of political appointments is unclear as the government has refused to disclose the figure.

When presenting the MVR 5.1 billion supplementary budget for the remainder of the year, Finance Minister Moosa Zameer said salaries for political appointees account for close to four percent of the total payroll of government staff.

The MVR 49.8 billion state budget for 2024 that was passed by the Parliament last year has an allocation of MVR 11.95 billion for salaries and allowances to government employees. The supplementary budget has an allocation of an additional MVR 24.4 million. With this, the total budget allocation for salaries this year will rise to MVR 11.98 billion.

Four percent of this is MVR 479.2 million.

Maldives government has been making rigorous efforts to cut state expenses, while various global financial institutions have warned the country’s potential to serve is debts looked bleak. Both Moody’s and Fitch Ratings had earlier this year downgraded the Maldives’ credit rating.

Other cost reduction measures include 10 percent pay reduction for political appointees, employees of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and senior officials of independent institutions and committees who receive a salary higher than MVR 12,000. The President also decided to forgo 50 percent of his salary.