Former Econ Minister allege govt did not remove political appointees

The Chairperson of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), and former Economic Minister Fayyaz Ismail has alleged the current government did not dismiss political appointees as per its claims.

While the current government earlier claimed the dismissal of 228 political appointees as part of its ongoing cost-cutting measures, Fayyaz alleged this was untrue and called out to the government to publicize the list of appointees dismissed under this effort.

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu announced the government will remove 228 political appointees within 15 days earlier on October 15^th.

Speaking on SSTV’s “Baaru Hathareh” program, Fayyaz said that while the government was hiking tax rates, it was not putting any efforts to reduce state expenditure.

“After making claims of removing 200 political appointees to dupe the public, they had not proceeded with it. If they had dismissed these appointees, then I am challenging them to publicize a list of their names, whether they were removed from an SOE or any other government agency,” Fayyaz said.

Fayyaz also claimed the government’s recent decision to hike duties on cigarettes had ulterior motives behind the move, which he claimed was a means to extract more of the public’s taxes to inflate the salaries of political appointees.

He further said that the price surge would not dissuade the public from quitting smoking, but it required long-term rehabilitation and treatment.

“Smokers continue their smoking, and now we are seeing the older generations switching to homemade cigarettes. The health conditions will deteriorate, so this move was in no way aimed at improving their health,” Fayyaz added.

At the onset of his presidency, Dr. Muizzu promised that the political positions will not exceed 700. However, rumours spread that the current government was rampantly hiring political staff to government agencies after the president’s official assumption of office.

Although the political opposition and public criticized the surge in political appointees, the government did not disclose the exact number of political appointees.

MDP alleges the number of political appointees under the current administration exceeded 2,000.

On the other hand, international financial institutions have raised concerns about Maldives’ debt servicing potential. Both Moody’s and Fitch earlier this year downgraded their respective credit scores of Maldives while subsequently recommending the government to reduce its costs.

As part of the state’s cost-cutting efforts, President Muizzu announced dismissal of several political appointees among other austerity measures, that include:

• A 10 percent remuneration cut from political appointees
• A 10 percent remuneration cut from the employees of state-owned enterprises except local banks and capping the maximum salary at MVR 90,000 for the senior-most positions in these companies (current framework allows a maximum of MVR 100,000 to these positions)
• A 10 percent pay cut from employees of independent institutions
• A 10 percent pay cut from the senior-most public legal officials and lawmakers

President Muizzu also announced that employees receiving salaries of MVR 12,000 and less would be exempted from this pay cut. He further announced the pay cut will be effective for a two-year duration.