MALDIVES
Officials handling the transition to the new Maldives Government of President, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih say there has been extensive political interference in the Public Service by the previous administration.
The leader of the team assessing the Ministry of Housing, Mohamed Aslam (pictured) accused the former Government of unfairly handing out social housing flats — an allegation denied by the former Minister in charge, Mohamed Muizz.
Mr Aslam, a former Housing and Environment Minister, told a press conference the allocation of flats had been finalised by a decision-making committee entirely made up of political individuals.
“The Civil Servants are not even aware of how the decisions are made,” Mr Aslam said.
“The Housing Ministry became a massive and unmanageable institution after it took over responsibilities of Local Councils.”
He said the lack of staff to supervise projects had led to problems that subsequently had to be fixed.
In Mr Solih’s Cabinet, the Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure will be renamed the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, with a new Ministry to be formed with responsibility for national planning and infrastructure.
The new Administration plans to carry out an audit of Ministries and state-run companies during its first 100 days.
A member of the team assessing the Ministry of Education, Ibrahim Ismail said additional funds were needed to prepare for the 2019 academic year.
“We noticed a lack of funds to repair schools before the academic year begins,” Mr Ismail said, accusing political appointees of marginalising qualified PS staff within the Ministry.
“The Ministry does not know what happened to the tablet computers promised for all students across the country.”
The assessor of the Ministry of Gender, Shidhatha Shareef blamed political influence for alleged mismanagement.
“The entire Civil Service machinery is built in a way to execute orders from politicians,” Ms Shareef said.
Finance assessor, Ilyas Labeeb criticised the lack of cooperation from several state-owned companies.
He noted that only nine of the 28 state companies generated a profit and paid dividends to the Government.
The new Administration was to take office at the weekend.
Malé, 15 November 2018
