Day: April 23, 2011

Public outrage in Addu prompts “Stop Abuse” vehicle rally

A vehicle rally with the slogan “Stop Abuse” took place in Addu City yesterday in the wake of public shock and outrage over the brutal rape of a 74 year-old woman in Hithadhoo last week.

Haveeru reports that local NGOs, businesses and state enterprises participated in the rally across the interconnected islands of the southernmost Seenu Atoll. While Housing Minister Mohamed Aslam along with some MPs also took part, Haveeru notes that public participation was low.

According to the Child Protection Services Centre in Hithadhoo, 237 cases of child abuse and 58 cases of domestic violence have been reported since the centre was established.

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Government income must be doubled, says President

Government income has to be doubled to create fiscal space for increased capital expenditure and investment for development opportunities, President Mohamed Nasheed said in his radio address yesterday.

Speaking on the cabinet decision last week to incentivise voluntary redundancy in the civil service, President Nasheed reiterated that facilitating more attractive and higher paying employment opportunities for civil servants and government employees remains “a major goal for the government.”

“Development opportunities are going to be very limited if a large part of state revenue is recurrent expenditure,” he said. “We have to increase capital expenditure. The best way is to exponentially increase government income.”

While revenue was increasing year by year, Nasheed continued, current levels of annual income have to be “doubled” to make fiscal space for capital investments.

“It will take time for the state to reach that level,” he added. “It is necessary for the government to maintain recurrent expenditure at a certain level to reach [the goal]…The government’s purpose, or objective, is to find ways for employees to improve their standard of living.”

Under the scheme launched by cabinet on Tuesday, civil servants and government employees will be eligible for one of four retirement incentive packages: no assistance, a one time payment of Rf150,000 (US$11,700), a payment of Rf150,000 and priority in the small and medium enterprises loan scheme (for those 18-50 years of age), or a lump sum of Rf 200,000 (US$15,600) and priority in government training and scholarship programmes (for those 18-40 years of age).

Government employees above the age of 55 who retire voluntarily will be given the same benefits as those released by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) at the mandatory retirement age of 65.

The deadline to apply for the programme with the Finance Ministry is May 31, 2011.

Austerity battles

In August 2009, the government’s decision to implement austerity measures to alleviate the crippling budget deficit – including unpopular pay cuts of up to 15 percent for civil servants – was met with protests and fierce resistance from opposition parties and the CSC.

President Nasheed announced at the time that the government planned to halve the 32,000-strong civil service by 2011 through redundancies and transfer of employees to corporations.

While the President stated that the civil service should be composed of no more than 18,000 well-paid and qualified staff, CSC Chair Mohamed Fahmy told Minivan News last week that the commission currently has 19,000 permanent staff.

At the height of a protracted legal dispute between the CSC and government last year, the parliament-appointed independent commission was accused of attempting to topple the government and “plunge the Maldives into chaos.”

International organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank meanwhile insist that reckless expansionary fiscal policies from 2004 onward that saw doubling expenditure on salaries between 2007-2009 crippled the economy.

“The Maldives faces the most challenging macroeconomic situation of all democratic transitions that have occurred since 1956,” read a World Bank report in March 2010.

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MMA Governor meets Finance Minister to discuss dollar shortage

Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) Governor Fazeel Najeeb met Finance Minister Ahmed Inaz last week to discuss the policy measures taken to alleviate the dollar shortage and determine what additional efforts could be undertaken to resolve the problem.

According to an MMA press statement on Thursday, Najeeb and Inaz agreed that given the continuing scarcity of dollars, “the problem of partiality by some to transactions with dollars instead of rufiyaa is tied to the dollar shortage.”

“It was therefore decided to go forward by consulting the business community about the issue,” it adds.

Deputy Governor Aishath Zahira, State Minister Ahmed Naseer and MMA technical staff also participated in the meeting.

Local media meanwhile reported a sharp rise in the wholesale prices of a number of commodities last week, ranging from powdered milk to areca nuts. Following the government’s decision earlier this month to replace the fixed exchanged rate with a managed float of the rufiya within a band of 20 percent of the 12.85 peg, newly-appointed Finance Minister Inaz told press that he expected the economy to stabilise within three months.

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Police arrest three suspects in burglary case

Police arrested three men Thursday on suspicion of stealing a safe with over Rf800,000 (US$62,250) in cash and jewellery from a house in Maafanu ward of Male’.

Haveeru reports that the third suspect, Ahmed Muaz, municipality register number 8499, was found Thursday night hiding in his girlfriend’s bathroom.

A police media official said that officers at the scene broke the bathroom door after Muaz refused to come out.

Muaz was arrested in connection with the burglary of a safe containing US$38,000 and Rf30,000 (US$2,330) in cash along with expensive watches and jewellery. The safe was stolen from the third floor of a Maafanu residence.

Jaufar Mohamed, 29, M. Medhuriya, and Ahmed Riyaz, 29, M. Hasthy, were meanwhile taken into custody before police issued a public search notice for Muaz.

Police revealed that one of the suspects, Jaufar Mohamed, had previously been sentenced to jail and that efforts were underway to determine how or why he was released.

Meanwhile the Criminal Court revealed that a man brought before the court yesterday for assaulting a shop owner after threatening to kill him had previously been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Court records showed that Ismail Waheed, G. Sundance, had been convicted for possession of 25 packets of drugs.

The court ordered police to keep the repeat offender in custody for 15 days and to hand him over to the penitentiary department within that period.

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MMA launches dollar reference at Rf 14.75

The Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) has published a dollar reference exchange rate of Rf 14.75, in an effort to give an approximate determination of the value of the currency.

Currency exchangers are permitted to sell dollars within a 20 percent band of the pegged rate of Rf 12.85, after the government launched a managed float of the rufiya earlier this month. Rf 14.75 is roughly the value of exchange on the black market prior to the managed float.

Banks are required to submit their daily rates to the MMA.

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“Clear evidence of crimes against humanity”: Maldives suspends diplomatic ties with Libya

The Maldives has suspended diplomatic ties with the Libyan government as Western powers increase military pressure on President Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

“Following the recognition of the TNC, the suspension of diplomatic relations with the pro-Gaddafi regime is based on the continuing deteriorating human rights and humanitarian situation in Libya, and increasingly clear evidence that the Gaddafi regime is guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes,” the Maldives Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The statement came after the US accused Gaddafi of using human shields and cluster bombs against his own population in the city of Misata, in some of the fiercest fighting of the civil war so far.

At least 10 civilians were killed on Wednesday, along with British photojournalist Tim Hetherington and American photographer Chris Hondros.

A bombing attack on Gaddafi’s compound in Tripoli yesterday meanwhile caused three causalities, after NATO jets targeted a bunker underneath a car park.

France, Italy and Britain this week authorised the deployment of military advisors to assist the ill-disciplined rebels in overthrowing Gaddafi’s government, despite earlier reluntance to put ‘boots on the ground’ in the stricken country.

US President Barack Obama has meanwhile authorised the use of drone aircraft in Libya. A NATO official this week told the UK’s Guardian newspaper that the drones would allow the identification of individuals even in crowded urban environments, allowing for more precise airstrikes.

After France and Qatar, the Maldives was the third country to recognise the Transitional National Council, the Benghazi rebels’ representative body.

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