The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) has said the delay caused by the deadlock in parliament is obstructing citizens obtaining the human rights promised them under the constitution.
HRCM said laws and rules are necessary elements for people to obtain their basic human rights, and other services the state should deliver the citizens.
“As it is the constitutional duty of the parliament to legislate, [this delay] causes the citizens to lack their rights and also causes a loss of confidence in democracy, and obstructs the establishment of the rule of law in the country,’’ HRCM said. “When the necessary laws are not passed, it becomes an obstacle for the state to fulfill tis the constitutional duty as stated under article 18, to protect and promote human rights.’’
HRCM noted that the Witnesses bill, Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Bill , Law on Taxation and National University Law were yet to be passed, as parliament entered its third week of inaction following clashes over the cabinet endorsement issue. Today’s parliament sitting was also canceled after the MPs clashed over the cabinet endorsement issue. The 10 day public holiday begins on Thursday.
HRCM called on parliamentarians and political parties to work in the best interest of the nation and its citizens.
The opposition and the ruling party have blamed each other for the cancellation of the parliament sittings, and each session is derailed on points of order.
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) is reviewing its earlier decision not to investigate allegations of misconduct against three judges made by Treasure Island Private Limited.
The Treasure Island case against the JSC, which began in early October this year, implicates three judges in miscarriages of justice against the company.
Treasure Island alleges that the JSC neglected its Constitutional responsibilities in failing to investigate the company’s subsequent complaints against the judges.
Now Supreme Court Justice Ali Hameed, Interim Supreme Court Justice Mujthaz Fahmy, High Court Justice Ahmed Shareef Ali and Senior Magistrate Ali Naseer, alleges Treasure Island Chief Ali Hussein Manik, abused the justice system to wrongfully take, and pass the ownership on to someone else, a resort island belonging to him.
He names influential figures in the tourism sector during the previous government as having been involved in the case.
The three judges he named, Manik alleged, abused the law to rule against Treasure Island in its civil case against the parties he alleges wrongfully took the island from him.
Responding to the allegations of professional negligence, the JSC initially told the court in October that two of the complaints were not within its Constitutional mandate for ensuring the ethical standards and principles of the judiciary.
The third complaint, it said, was pending a decision at the time the case was filed.
Faththah said today, however, that the JSC had decided to use existing legal mechanisms to review its earlier decisions not to investigate the complaints and to re-assess whether or not the complaints should be investigated.
“What the company asked the court for is a legal mechanism under which to review the JSC decision not to investigate its complaints. We have now provided that mechanism by beginning the process to review our earlier decision”, Faththah said.
Deciding to re-open complaints against members of the judiciary represents a shift in the JSC’s earlier stance which suggested that allegations of misconduct by some members of the judiciary could be outside of its Constitutional mandate.
The JSC said today that it does not need a court ruling to make it perform its Constitutional duties, and stated that it will examine every complaint of misconduct made against every member of the judiciary without a court having to make such an order.
“Since the Commission is reviewing every complaint received by the appellant, the Commission does not feel that a court ruling is necessary any more,” Faththah said.
What Treasure Island wants from the JSC, it was already providing, he said. A court ruling was both obsolete and irrelevant, he said asking for dismissal.
Treasure Island Limited, however, insisted on court intervention.
It’s chief Manik, who had earlier told the court he did not have any trust in the JSC, said he wanted the court to make an order allowing him to see the agenda of the meeting in which JSC members decided not to investigate allegations against the three judges.
Treasure Island had asked the court for the same ruling on 17 October 2010, when the court last sat on the issue.
What the JSC told the court today is that since Treasure Island is asking specifically for the court to order JSC to provide the documents as evidence, in the absence of such an order by the court, the JSC was not obliged to provide the documents.
The Constitution requires any decision taken by the JSC to be one reached by a majority vote at a meeting in which more than six of its ten members are present.
If Judge Nihayath orders that Treasure Island should be allowed to see minutes of the meeting, it would be able to verify whether or not the JSC followed proper procedure in making the decision, twice, not to further investigate the complaints made by Treasure Island.
The JSC is yet to adopt a Standards of Procedure according to which all its duties would be performed, leading to dissent and tension among its members, and between members and the Secretariat.
In the last few weeks, a rift has appeared in the JSC between members who want the JSC to adopt its Standards of Procedure as a matter of urgency and allege that the Chair of the Commission is systematically evading the issue.
Two weeks ago JSC Chair Supreme Court Justice Adam Mohamed walked out of a meeting when four members demanded that he table adopting the Standards of Procedure at the Commission’s next meeting.
The four member group pushing for adoption of the Standards include the Attorney General, the President’s Member, Member of the Public, member of the law community and member of the High Court.
A day-long meeting to adopt the Standards of Procedure scheduled to be held outside of Male’ on Saturday, the next time when the matter was put on the agenda, was cancelled as various members excused themselves citing other commitments.
Three meetings of the JSC have since been held but none included discussion of the Standards.
Although it is a group of the same members who happen to be unavailable for any discussions on the Standards of Procedure, none of the members have publicly declared whether or why there is a reluctance on their part to adopting the Standards.
The Secretariat of the JSC, meanwhile, is also in a state of chaos after Chair Justice Mohamed reportedly intimidated the Interim Secretary General Moomina Umar and other members of staff over their decision to speak to the media without prior approval from the Chair.
The claim by Justice Mohamed is inaccurate as the JSC unanimously adopted a declaration on 2 September, authorising three members of the Secretariat, including Moomina to speak to the media.
Taking over from his lawyer to represent himself, Manik appealed to Judge Nihayath for the court’s intervention as he did not trust the JSC to do its duties.
“Without an honest JSC, we, the people of this country cannot have our right to justice,” Manik said.
Judge Nihayath adjourned the case to 5 December 2010.
The government will charge a fee for sewerage facilities being developed on the islands, reports Haveeru.
At a ceremony to hand over the facilities, Housing Minister Mohamed Aslam said the amount to be charged would be decided “in accordance with rates charged in Male.”
“At least an operational cost must be obtained by the operators from those who use the service,” he said.
The government had taken a loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), he said, to to develop sewerage facilities in Shaviyani atoll Funadhoo, Baa atoll Eydhafushi and Meemu atoll Muli, and would charge for the service to recoup the operating cost.
The runway at Male International Airport is being repaired, according to Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL), in a bid to solve problems of water retention. Managing Director Mohamed Ibrahim told Haveeru that an airline running Boeing 777 planes had complained of damage to the wheels, and had brought in a Boeing team to analyse the problem. The repair will be carried out overnight for the next two days, from midnight to 8am.
“We are repairing the touchdown area where the water retention occurs. We closed the runway early October for repairs. But there is a substantial area that still needs repairs,” he told Haveeru. “It will be problematic to close the runway for many days at once. Internationally runways are repaired by rescheduling the flights when the traffic is lowest,” he noted.
“We have to correct this problem as soon as possible. In the future, we will also have to re-tar the entire runway. That has to be done once every 15 years. It was last done at the beginning of 90s,” he told Haveeru.
The Maldives Civil Servants Association (MCSA) has called on the Home Minister Mohamed Shihab to resign from his post after the Home ministry declared that island councilors will be head of the island offices during the Local Council Elections.
Spokesperson of the MCSA Abdulla Mohamed said that the decision of the home ministry was “against the advice of President Mohamed Nasheed” and “also unconstitutional.”
“It shows the irresponsibility of the minister,’’ said Abdulla. “It will influence the outcome of the Local Council Elections and will obstruct them from being conducted freely.”
Abdulla said that he was not saying all the councilors act against the interests of democracy.
“But it is the nature of humans – they are political appointees appointed by politicians and their duty will be to uphold the policy of their head,’’ Abdulla claimed. “When they take over the island office, they will become a ‘shadow’ on a free democratic election.’’
He said the decision also showed that the home minister wanted to influence on the Local Council Elections and suggested Shihab resign “if he is unwilling to follow the constitution.”
State Home Minister Ahmed Adil said he could not comment on the issue, while Home Minister Mohamed Shiahab was unavailable at time of press.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has described as “absolutely false” claims made this week by opposition-aligned People’s Alliance (PA) MP Ahmed Nazim, that the institution had suspended its support of the Maldives because its program was not being followed.
MP Nazim, who is Deputy Speaker and also Chair of Parliament’s Finance Committee, told Minivan News yesterday that the leader of the Maldives IMF delegation, Rodrigo Cubero, “said so in a meeting on November 4.”
“I think [the suspension] will make it difficult for other international financial institutions and donors to entertain the requests of the Maldivian government in the future,” Nazim said.
“Even though the amount of the IMF program is only US$92.5 million, adherence to the IMF program would have led to comfort letters from the IMF to other donors assuring them of the sound fiscal policies of the government.”
“Absolutely false”
At a press conference held in the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) on Monday, Cubero stated that media reports based on the claims were “absolutely false. That is not the position of the IMF. What we have said is that the disbursement under the second review of the program has been delayed. We have not suspended our program or our relations with the country, and we continue strongly engage with the authorities to complete the second review, and put policies in place to restore fiscal sustainability and economic prosperity in the Maldives.”
The ‘delay’, Cubero explained, was due to the “fiscal slippages” caused by insufficient progress towards reducing the wage bill and passing tax legislation – most significantly, the Business Profit Tax.
Civil Service without a smile
The country’s financial deficit has exploded on the back of a 400 percent increase in the government’s wage bill between 2004 and 2009, with tremendous growth between 2007 and 2009.
On paper, the government increased average salaries from Rf 3000 to Rf 11,000 and boosted the size of the civil service from 24,000 to 32,000 people – 11 percent of the total population of the country, almost triple that of a comparative island nation such as the Caribbean.
Both these measures – salary increases and civil service hires – doubled government spending from 35 percent of GDP to 60 percent from 2004 to 2006.
Nonetheless, despite the fourfold increase in salaries, a legal scrap this year between the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and the Finance Ministry following a 15 percent cut to civil servant salaries has effectively immobilised the government’s ability to reduce the wage bill.
For its part, the CSC does not contest the crippling state of the economy, but argues that cuts must be distributed fairly. The Ministry of Finance meanwhile accused the CSC of hiding “a political agenda”, and in February filed a case with the police asking them to investigate it on suspicion of trying to topple the government “and plunge the Maldives into chaos.”
State Finance Minister Ahmed Assad explained that the President last year issued an executive order to bring the salaries down, but had been blocked by the opposition-majority parliament.
“The Majlis stood against it,” he said. The government had initiated discussion with the Civil Service Commission, “but it has taken us nowhere and there’s been little progress this last year.”
The disagreement over salary restoration culminated in the Permanent Secretaries of Ministries being ordered to submit differing wage sheets by both the Finance Ministry and the CSC.
Meanwhile, the country’s financial deficit has grown to 26.5 percent of GDP, among the highest of any country in the world, placing the Maldives at risk of economic catastrophe. The IMF refused financing to Sri Lanka because the country’s fiscal deficit reached 10.5 percent.
Budget for austerity in 2011, or else: IMF
The forthcoming 2011 budget, explained Cubero, was “a crucial opportunity for the government to implement the austerity measures much needed. We will return to Washington and wait for the the numbers to be finalised. At the moment, the current policy stance is not sustainable.”
He acknowledged that the government faced “enormous difficulties, political and legal, in implementing its policy decisions”, but reiterated that the entire country was “living beyond its means.”
“With the government borrowing at the rate it has, it reduces the amount of credit available to the private sector, and that constrains the ability of the private sector to provide jobs and employment,” Cubero explained. “That then constrains economic growth. Furthermore, by spending more than it earns, the government is putting pressure on imports and the exchange rate.”
“This is in reality a simple thing. Think of an individual – if a family is consuming more than it earns, the only way to finance that is by accumulating debt. At some point the banks or creditors may not be willing to finance your debt. “
Continued growth of the deficit would impact the population as a whole, Cubero predicted. “We do hope the gravity of situation prevails and a reasonably constrained 2011 budget is passed.”
Last year parliament’s finance committee, headed by Nazim, amended the budget to include an additional Rf 800 million (US$62 million), including the restoration of civil servant salaries following the 15 percent pay cut, and subsidies for sectors ranging from fishing and agriculture to private media.
Media subsidies, when they arrived, were also allocated by the Finance Committee with 50 percent of the Rf 4 million total going to the two wealthiest private TV stations.
The government took a dim view of the ‘extras’: “It has to be kept in mind that the budget is made up of numbers; it is a mathematical transaction. If things are done for political reasons, the numbers won’t add up,” said President Nasheed in December 2009.
His remarks were met with outrage from members of the Majlis, who interpreted his comments as an attempt to undermine parliament’s role in the governance of the country.
Cubero said the IMF had presented its views of the economic situation to parliament and the opposition, and had held “a frank discussion”.
“We explained that there had a been delay with the third tranche pending completion of the second review. It was a very good and positive discussion, and I sense they have the commitment to do what is needed. They have very good opportunity to contribute to passing a tight 2011 budget, and needed tax reforms such as the business profit tax. Their support and the support of all stakeholders will be crucial.
“Otherwise,” Cubero stated, “the implications will be negative for everyone. We hope austerity prevails.”
The Maldives fiscal deficit of 26.5 percent is among the highest in the world, says the IMF
Playing politics with the economy
The IMF’s announcement came not without ample warning. In January 2010 it warned that: “Measures that substantially raise the budget deficit, such as a reversal of previously announced wage adjustments, [will put] put the program off track, jeopardising prospects for multilateral and bilateral international financing.”
Asked to comment on that warning at the time, Spokesperson of the CSC Mohamed Fahmy Hassan insisted that according to Maldivian law, the finance ministry had to pay the increased salary that month. In response, Assad pointed out that the IMF only gave economic advice, and was indifferent to a country’s law.
In June 2010, the IMF published its Country Report for the Maldives, which calculated that if the government continued to pursue economic reform at current pace and policy, the country’s fiscal deficit would increase by one percent of GDP in 2010 and 4.5 percent of GDP in 2011.
Meanwhile, the IMF observed in June, parliament passed the 2010 budget “with amendments totaling a seven percent (4.25 percent of GDP) increase over the government’s proposed budget.”
As a consequence, the report stated, “the annual deficit targets for 2010 and 2011 will be missed on current policies.”
Almost a year after the first warning, the generosity of the donor community and an uncharacteristically patient IMF – it has a reputation for being ruthlessly pragmatic with regard to local politics – have so far insulated the average Maldivian from the impact of the horrendous deficit. Consumer spending is booming and mobiles and mopeds abound, although indirect effects such as rising electricity costs and the resurgent dollar shortage have bitten the public.
But the IMF’s announcement today is a ‘shot across the bow’ that leaves the government in a decidedly unpleasant position, trapped between the source of its income – other donors do rely on the IMF’s assurances – and a parliament seemingly unwilling or unable to grasp the full extent of the problem as it closes its doors for the third week running.
Expenditure-wise, the government does not want to endure the loss of votes and most likely, unemployment, that will come with the degree of cuts demanded by the IMF.
As for revenue, vested business interests in parliament are unlikely to see the IMF’s vaunted Business Profit Tax passed unless the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) were to gain a majority. The leaked audio recordings in early July added weight to the suspicions of many, as MPs were heard to negotiate the ceasing “of all work on the tax bills submitted by the government to the Majlis” until, among other things, a no-confidence motion was tabled against Finance Minister Ali Hashim. Nasheed’s cabinet resigned in protest against parliament “scorched earth politics” before this came to fruition.
The IMF did offer some good news. Despite the country’s twin problems of a crippling wage bill and inability to pass tax legislation through a suspiciously disinterested parliament, the country’s core economic base is sound, with a 5-6 percent increase this year on the back of a strong rebound in tourist arrivals.
But the IMF’s ‘delay’ in opening the purse strings for the third tranche ups the pressure and signals an impatience with the ‘business as usual’ approach taken by all parties involved.
So far the MMA’s efforts to drain excess rufiya from circulation have kept inflation under control, but worrying economic signals such as bank restrictions on the free flow of currency and repression of remittances from foreigners’ accounts have been mounting up. Minivan News has now spoken to the managers of several foreign businesses with offices in Male’, employing dozens of people, who say they are being forced to reevaluate the viability of operating in the Maldives.
These problems are are unlikely to be resolved in the long term by the US$78 million fee paid by Indian infrastructure giant GMR for Male’ International Airport, or yet more donor aid, as the government has implied. Aid is a moot point, as in January 2011 the UN graduates the Maldives to a ‘middle income’ country, severing the umbilical cord to both concessional credit and a degree of international aid funding.
Assad insists the government has included this graduation in its predictions, although he notes that the Finance Ministry had banked on the Majlis passing the tax bill by June.
“Some people say [the graduation] will increase borrowing capacity and give us more independence,” Assad said. “But like becoming an adult, it means taking on both freedom and responsibilities.”
(0)Dislikes
(0)