Parliament selected three of the eight names proposed by President Mohamed Nasheed for members of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM).
The three members appointed for HRCM were Maryam Azra Ahmed of Maafannu Hukuradhige, Jeehaan Mahmood of Dheyliyage in Hinnavaru of Lhaviyani Atoll and Ahmed Thalal of Henveiru Adduge. Former President of HRCM Ahmed Saleem was not approved by the parliament.
In the same session on Thursday, Parliament appointed five members for the CSC: Dr Mohamed Latheef of Mahchangolhi Kimbi, Mohamed Fahmy Hassan of Galolhu Kohgiri, Ahmed Hassan Didi of Galolhu New Waves, Abdulla Jinah and Khadheeja Adam of Galolhu Alafaruge.
Press Secretary for the President, Mohamed Zuhair, said that the government believed “all persons appointed are capable and willing persons.”
“The President proposed names to the parliament including the people who are already members of the commission,’’ said Zuhair. “Parliament researched the names and appointed names for the CSC and HRCM.’’
Both the CSC and HRCM were left in constitutional limbo last week after parliament failed to conduct the reappointments in time for the interim period deadline of August 7.
Prior to the appointment of commission members on Thursday, a source at HRCM said the legal legitimacy of the institution’s activities were questionable until the new commission was approved: “we don’t even know if we are supposed to be going to work.”
Under the Constitution and conventions, the President has the power to seek nominations to the Civil Service Commission and submit nominations to the Majlis, said President Nasheed in his weekly radio address. Making nominations for the commission to the Majlis was not its legal role, said the President, and he was returning amendments to the Civil Service Act to the Majlis for reconsideration.
The power of the President to seek and receive nominations to the commission, and select applicants, is removed under an amendment to Article 13 of the Act passed by the Majlis on 22 June. This power would be taken by the Majlis, and the President would have to appoint whoever they selected. The President would not have power of approval, unlike the power of approval given to the Majlis under the original Act.
A secret ballot would be used by the Majlis to appoint the chairperson and deputy chairperson of the commission under an amendment to Article 17 of the Act.
The Majlis would have the power to dismiss members of the commission if their actions are “inappropriate”, or if they are unable or incapable of fulfilling their duties in the view of the Majlis, according to an amendment to Article 15 of the Civil Service Act.
The High Court has concluded hearings in the appeal case involving the finance ministry’s order to government offices to prepare salary sheets in accordance with reduced salaries scales, after the civil service commission (CSC) announced the restoration of wages, Haveeru reports.
The Civil Court earlier ruled that the ministry did not have authority to make the order.
Solicitor General Abdulla Muiz spoke on behalf of finance ministry before Judge Ali Hameed on Thursday, saying that the Majlis had not decided to restore civil service wages and no separate budget was allocated for it. Instead, the Majlis decision was to allow the ministry and the commission to work in agreement, he said.
Representing CSC, former communications minister Dr Abdulla Jameel responded that it was against article 96(c) of the constitution not to give the money allocated for civil service wages. The article was included in the constitution because the former government had not kept up with the budget, he claimed. The commission’s independence would not be maintained, said Dr Jameel, if it was required to act on recommendations.
Judge Hameed concluded the hearing and said an additional hearing would only be held if the court finds something that should be clarified.
An acute lack of pediatric specialists in Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) has forced the hospital to temporarily close outpatient services for children, who make up 40 percent of the hospital’s patients.
Zubair Mohamed, Managing Director of Male’ Health Services Corporation – formerly the Chief Executive Officer of IGMH – said that there were only four pediatricians left after many left claiming to have family and personal problems, while others departed on vacation.
Zubair said that low wages and poor allowances were leading doctors to resign and return to their own countries.
”Most of the good doctors we have are from India,” Zubair said.
”They get almost the same salary as if they worked in India, so it’s not worth it for them to work here.”
A recent salary increase for doctors in India has made it even harder for the Maldives to attract and retain qualified medical staff.
Zubair said that the remaining four pediatricians were now working 24 hours on-call in the emergency and IPD units.
”Forty percent of the patients who come to the hospital are children,” Zubair said. ”They are a large group of patients.”
He said that patients hospitalised were now being given more priority than the patients who visited for diagnosis or treatment.
A pediatrician and a second doctor – a talented psychiatric specialist – left the hospital last week on vacation and have not returned.
”They usually leave saying that they have family and personal issues,” Zubair said. ”Only a few directly say that they cannot work for the low salary.”
As a consequence there would be no outpatient pediatric services available this week, he said.
”Hopefully we will get new pediatricians for the hospital very soon and restart services,” Zubair said. ”We need at least six doctors.”
Future of IGMH
When IGMH begins running as a corporation the salaries of doctors will rise and allowances will increase, Zubair promised.
”Right now all the doctors classed are civil servants, ” he explained, ”so we have to follow the regulations of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and cannot provide them the allowances and salary as we would prefer.”
He said the new corporation had held a meeting with the CSC and discussed the matter, and estimated that it would take three months to start IGMH as a health services corporation.
Spokesperson for the CSC Fahmy Hassan said that the Male’ Health Corporation had held a meeting with the commission but ”it was not to discuss the doctor salaries.”
Fahmy said the commission in January asked the Finance Ministry how much they would be able to pay for the doctors salary and said that the commission was not legally authorised to pay any salary the commission wanted.
”We are now paying them the highest possible salary the Finance Ministry has agreed to give,” he said. ”We cannot pay a salary Finance Ministry disagrees with.”
Press secretary for the president Mohamed Zuhair said that the government had nothing to do with the CSC’s code of salary.
”The government will try to solve the problem somehow,” he said.
He said that the salaries of the doctors will increase when IGMH starts running under Male’ Health Corporation, “which was the main reason why we established it,” he said.Permanent Secretary for the Finance Ministry Ismail Shafeeq did not respond to Minivan News at time of press.
The Attorney General sent an appeal to the High Court last Thursday on behalf of the Ministry of Finance, regarding last week’s decision in favour of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) concerning civil servant salaries.
Last Tuesday the Civil Court ruled in favour of the CSC in their suit against the Ministry of Finance regarding civil servants’ salaries, which were reduced in October last year. Although the court ruled in favour of the CSC, they did not specify whether the ministry had to restore civil servant salaries.
Speaking to Minivan News last week, member of the CSC Mohamed Fahmy Hassan said he was “confident the Finance ministry will give the salaries as we requested,” after which members of the CSC and the ministry met last Thursday to discuss the issue.
Today Fahmy said they were “very surprised” when they received instruction from the High Court “not to take any action [regarding the salaries] until they have made a decision.”
He said last week, the Finance Ministry “were very positive and we did not think they had any intention to appeal.”
Fahmy said the issue of salary restoration will again be put on hold until the High Court makes its decision. “I don’t know how long this is going to take,” he said. “It depends on whether any party appeals to the Supreme Court.”
He noted the CSC was not planning on appealing the case yet, but it was a possibility which would be looked at depending on how the AG’s appeal process was going.
“This is a very clear case,” Fahmy said, “civil servants cannot be singled out. There are many other staff paid by the government.”
Fahmy noted the CSC would continue with this case “until it is resolved or a decision is made by the highest authority.”
He added the continued reduction of civil servants’ salaries was “against the Constitution.”
Attorney General Husnu Suood said his office was “speaking against points of law involved in the judgement.” Basically, “we are not happy with the interpretation [of the law]” made by the Civil Court last week, he said.
“The interpretation of the law is not correct,” he stated.
Suood said his office along with the Ministry of Finance and the CSC were having “discussions as to how we should proceed with judgement passed by the Civil Court.”
He said although it was “too early to say” whether civil servants would have their salaries restored soon, he was “very hopeful that it will be settled outside of court.”
Suood reiterated the point that they wanted to settle the matter outside of the court system, and this appeal was only meant to speak against the Civil Court’s ruling.
Press Secretary for the President’s Office Mohamed Zuhair said “in this kind of scenario when they can’t agree,” the appeal is meant to give the Ministry of Finance more time to resolve the issue with the CSC out of court.
He noted Parliament still has not yet passed any of the bills which would provide the government enough revenue to surpass the needed Rf7 billion to restore civil servants’ salaries.
“We will not reach it this year,” Zuhair said, “no bills have been discussed in the house.”
He added the CSC “has no right to demand higher pay” when the government’s revenue is still not beyond the stipulated Rf7 billion.
The Civil Court has ruled in favour of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) yesterday on their case against the Ministry of Finance regarding civil servants’ salary cuts, but did not rule on whether the salaries have to be restored.
Civil servants’ salaries were officially reduced in October 2009 with salary cuts of up to 20 percent. This measure was taken when the government’s budget deficit forced several independent commissions and government offices to reduce salaries in order to alleviate expenditure.
The government had promised to restore salaries once the budget rose above Rf7 billion (US$544 million). The cut was expected to last only three months.
In December 2009 the CSC requested the government restore salaries as the proposed mid-term 2010 budget was anticipated to exceed Rf7 billion. But disputes over whether the budget included foreign aid or not complicated the issue further, as the Finance Ministry said, excluding foreign aid the budget was Rf6.8 billion.
After months of incertitude and awaiting a decision, the court ruled “the Finance Ministry does not have the legal authority to order amendments to salaries”, according to Press Secretary for the President’s Office, Mohamed Zuhair.
Zuhair said President Mohamed Nasheed had not yet said anything on the ruling, or whether the government would appeal the decision, but noted it was a possibility an appeal would be made on the ruling.
Member of the CSC Mohamed Fahmy Hassan said the court’s decision showed “the independence of the judiciary and non-interference [of the government] in affairs of the judiciary.”
He said the CSC is hopeful “the issue will be solved” and they are “confident the Finance Ministry will give the salaries as we requested.”
Fahmy said they hoped their salaries will be restored soon, and added they will be “flexible” when negotiating the back-log of payments. He estimates the total amount of money ‘owed’ to civil servants since the pay cuts started in October 2009 is approximately Rf120 million.
“We have always had the national interest as our concern,” he said, “and we will try to come to an amicable solution.”
He noted “preliminary discussions [with the ministry] went very positively,” and said “final decisions will be announced soon.”
Fahmy said the CSC took the court’s decision as an order for civil servant salaries to be restored. “We don’t see any other interpretation.”
He added “the government is very keen to resolve this issue to the satisfaction of everybody involved,” and noted the issue would probably be solved once President Mohamed Nasheed returns to the country after his visit to Bhutan.
Deputy Minister of Finance Ahmed Assad said his reading of the court’s ruling is that “it’s the CSC’s decision” on whether they want to have their salaries restored.
“Regarding the judgement, there are no negotiations,” he said, adding the ministry is “still talking” to the CSC about the issue.
“We’ve said this before,” Assad said, “it’s not because we want to [cut their pay] but because we don’t have a choice.”
He said as far as the economy is concerned, “we don’t see any economic event that has changed [the situation].”
Assad said “we want to give it some time” and they are now waiting for the CSC to make their decision.
History
After salaries were initially reduced in October 2009, the CSC and Finance Ministry have been disputing the legality and rationality of the pay cuts. The Maldives is still among the countries with the largest civil service as a percentage of its population. In 2008, civil service salaries amounted to 34 percent of total government expenditure.
Spokesperson for the Civil Servants’ Association, Abdulla Mohamed, told Minivan News in December last year, “we believe this damage was done to civil servants as a punishment and if there really were special economic circumstances, members of parliament and independent institutions too should have taken a pay cut.”
Pay cuts for independent institutions came into effect in December and several MPs volunteered for a pay cut.
On 30 December, the CSC issued an announcement stating civil servants’ salaries and allowances had been restored, as the 2010 budget was expected to exceed Rf7 billion.
But by mid-January 2010, the issue was still unresolved and salaries had not been restored.
At the time, the Ministry of Finance stated “employees will receive the salary that was reduced due to the economic circumstances,” and disputed the CSC’s statement claiming they had not discussed it with the ministry before publicising the announcement.
In January, the Ministry of Finance asked Parliament and the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) to arbitrate the dispute between them and the CSC.
Fahmy told Minivan News at the time that they would put the country’s interests above the interests of civil servants, but added, “it is difficult to justify that to 29,000 civil servants if the government is spending on all the other items in the budget.”
Shortly after Parliament and the MMA were asked to intervene, the CSC warned to take legal action against the ministry. The ministry threatened to also take legal action against the CSC.
By the end of January, the government announced salaries of staff at independent commissions, courts, parliament and the judicial services had been restored, and civil servant salaries would follow in April.
On 3 February 2010, the CSC announced they would take the issue to court and “claim for the amount reduced from the salaries of civil servants.”
The Civil Service Commission (CSC) has claimed that according to the law the commission is the only body with the legal authority to dismiss or suspend a civil servant.
The commission has claimed that the councilor of Dhiyamigili in Thaa Atoll asked a civil servant to stay at home, an accusation which led to the Home Minister Mohamed Shihab being summoned to the parliament and questioned by Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Ilham Ahmed.
Ilham on Monday asked the minister if a person in a political post could send a civil servant home.
The CSC released a statement which cited the minister as saying ”since a government’s office is established to provide services for the people, and as it’s the responsibility of the highest rank person at the time to manage it, I believe action could be taken.”
The CSC however claimed that “as article 46 [a] of the Civil Servant Act says, it is only the CSC who has legal authority to suspend a civil servant with or without salary. Ministers and councilors who are not among civil servants cannot ban a civil servant from coming to work,” the statement said.
Spokesperson for the CSC Mohamed Fahmy Hassan said the Home Ministry said had misled the people and claimed it was unlawful.
”If someone disrupts the peace, there are concerned authorities people should inform,” Fahmy said, ”there are departments with the authority to arrest and detain people. ”
He said that the commission never demanded or threatened any staff into joining a particular politcal party.
”The commission has never threatened a staff member hat he would be dismissed if does not join this party or that party,” he said. ”When we receive reports that a civil servant has broken the law, then we will take immediate action. ”
He notes that the councilor was not the authorised person to take action against the civil servant.
Island councilor for Dhiyamigili Adnan Ali said that it was the island chief who was asked to stay at home. But he did not give further information as he was ”very busy at the moment.”
Kudakudhinge Hiya, a temporary shelter for children in Vilingili managed by the Ministry of Health and Family, has been short-staffed “for months,” says Community Health Officer Iyaz Jadulla Naseem.
Iyaz has said he is “very concerned” over the staff shortage in the shelter. “There is a lack of staff,” Iyaz said, “and in the current structure, cooks and labourers’ jobs have been removed from the civil service.”
“We asked the Civil Service Commission (CSC) for a new cook, but they said they can’t send another person because these jobs have been removed [from the civil service].”
Iyaz added that the children’s home is being “treated like a government office,” and the commission has said that a government office has no need for a cook.
“We are not a government office,” Iyaz said, “but this is how they deal with us.”
The home, which has a capacity for 45 children, is currently catering for 51.
They had four registered cooks, but one resigned recently. “Another cook is on leave, so we only have two cooks right now,” Iyaz said.
The cooking shifts are shared, he explained, “but we still have to cook three times a day for the children. Imagine one person cooking for 51 children.”
“Three days ago there was no one to cook the morning shift,” Iyaz said, “so we had to call the afternoon cook to come in the morning as well.”
A lack of chefs is affecting the health of children at Vilingili Orphanage says health worker
He said this “lowers the quality of the food, and one person cannot concentrate for that long.”
Additionally, it means there is only one menu being prepared for all the children.
“We have five month-old babies and ten year-old children eating the same food. We need at least three or four cooks,” Iyaz said.
He said the Human Rights Commission Maldives (HRCM) had said they would go to the CSC to deal with the issue urgently.
Staff at Kudakudhinge Hiya have also spoken to the Ministry of Health and Family, who are “cooperating,” and Iyaz noted that Deputy Minister Mariya Ali “has been very helpful. But they can’t help until the CSC creates these jobs again.”
There had also been reports of several of the children being sick and sent to Indhira Ghandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH). “It wasn’t a big outbreak,” Iyaz said, “some vomiting and diarrhoea.”
He said twelve children were sick and “the Food and Drug authority came here to see see if it was food poisoning, but they didn’t think so because only a few children were affected.”
He added the doctors said it was a viral infection.
“Two of the children were admitted to IGMH,” he said, “and one child is still feeling weak but she’s getting better.”
Iyaz said the home is taking the issues to their superiors.
Recently appointed Director of the home confirmed there are four registered cooks, “but one resigned and one is on leave.”
“It is very difficult for one person to cook for all the children,” he said, noting that they are “trying our best and have reported to the Gender Department.”
A child plays with a toy at Vilingili orphanage
Government response
Deputy Minister of Health and Family Mariya Ali said the biggest problem at Kudakudhinge Hiya is “they don’t have enough staff.”
She said the ministry have recently hired staff and is communicating with the CSC to provide them with new cooks. They are also trying to bring back volunteers.
Mariya said although volunteers had not been able to go for a couple of months, the volunteer programme “is back on track.” She noted that “we have received help from a number of corporate sectors.”
She said the ministry had been trying to pass laws based on guidelines and regulations for children’s homes since 2007, “but they have just been going back and forth from the Attorney General’s office.”
“The costing for regulations to be implemented is being processed,” Mariya explained, noting that the regulations would include clauses on staff to child ratios, staff standards and etiquette, visitation procedures, and general criteria for the institution.
“We will send the guidelines to the AG this week,” she said, “then they will be sent to Parliament. It is very important to maintain children’s homes at a high standard.”
Mariya said that the most important thing was to reduce numbers in children’s homes and improve the criteria of admission.
She added that the Ministry of Health and Family is waiting to sign an MoU with English charity for children, Barnardo’s, for staff “to go to England to learn how to manage children’s institutions.”
Press Secretary for the President’s Office Mohamed Zuhair said the government’s plan to restructure the civil service meant there are new considerations for hiring a cook, as there were over 150 cooks in the civil service.
Zuhair said several ministries had been employing cooks and some offices in the health sector, for instance, would have a cook but not a nurse.
“But this is a special area,” he said, “there are special considerations. I’m sure the government will give special consideration to this case.”
The reduced salaries of staff at independent commissions, courts, parliament and the judicial services have been restored while civil servant salaries will follow in April, the government has said.
State Minister for Finance Ahmed Assad said the salaries had been increased in line with the budget approved by parliament and that the salaries of civil servants and staff at other government institutions would follow when the government’s economic condition stabilised.
“The government intends to restore salaries sooner than April if possible,” Assad said, adding that he would have preferred all salaries to be restored at the same time.
Speaking during his weekly radio address, the president said the government’s present situation was “unsustainable” and the Maldives had “the highest wages in the world relative to expenditure over income”.
“Despite criticisms and calls for protests by several people, public servants appreciate the value and importance of public sector reforms undertaken by the government,” he claimed.
“Fiscal adjustments” were necessary, he said, because of the country’s large financial deficit.
“I [therefore] wish to thank all civil servants very much.”
The president’s press secretary Mohamed Zuhair said he expected that the government’s economic condition to improve by April.
He further added that the decision to restore the salaries was “not related” to Thursday night’s protest outside the president’s residence, Muleeage.
Spokesperson for the Civil Service Commission (CSC) Mohamed Fahmy Hassan sounded disappointed and said it was hard for him to trust the president’s words because they differed from the actions of the finance ministry “and the way things have gone.”
“We do not know what to [do] now,” he said, adding that it was unfair for government staff other than civil servants to receive the restored salaries.
”We have been repeatedly begging the finance ministry,” he said. “The president wishes the best for civil servants, but these things are happening without the knowledge of the president.”
Spokesperson for the Civil Servants Association (CSA) Abdulla Waheed said the government was ruling the Maldives “as if there was no law.”
He said that the CSA was planning to hold a protest in front of finance ministry on Tuesday.
Many civil servants were “afraid to come out for protest because they might be fired,” he added.
(0)Dislikes
(0)
