The parliament has appointed the President and Deputy President of the Civil Service Commission (CSC).
Former spokesperson of the CSC, Fahmy Hassan, was elected President of the Commission, and newly elected member of the commission Ahmed Hassan Didi was appointed the deputy president.
Out of 74 present MPs, 69 of them voted in favor of both appointments.
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(0)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.”
(0)Dislikes(0)The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Country Report for the Maldives, published earlier this month, pegs the country’s fiscal deficit in 2009 at 26.25 percent and notes that while the “political climate for public expenditure cuts remains difficult… the coming months will be a crucial test of [the government’s] ability to prevail.”
The report provides a neutral assessment of the country’s economic condition and its progress towards economic reform and reduction of its significant budget deficit.
It notes that the authorities “have taken remarkable steps to bring about the very large fiscal adjustment”, most explicitly, salary cuts to government employees of between 10-20 percent, “something seen in just a handful of countries worldwide”, alongside “a 40-60 percent increase in electricity tariffs.”
The IMF also lauded the governments “initiation of a program for public employment reform that will ultimately reduce the government’s payroll by one-third”.
The government was facing “intense political pressure”, the IMF report observed, after being compelled by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to restore salaries backdated to January 1.
“The government has so far paid wages at the reduced levels, including for the police and army, who are not governed by the CSC,” the report said, adding that the decision had been “publicly challenged by the government on legal and economic grounds.”
A final court resolution on the law suit filed by the CSC could take up to one year, the report noted.
Meanwhile, 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.”
Therefore, it stated, a “key risk” to the country’s economy “concerns the ability of the government to maintain the public sector wage cuts. A negative outcome on this would have a large fiscal impact,” the report said, adding that government’s target for public sector employment cuts had already been pushed back a year from the end of 2010 to the end of 2011.
Secondary risks to the economy included delays in passing taxation reforms through parliament, and “planned public employment cuts.” Tourism was “bouncing back”, it noted, but whether this would affect the recovery of the domestic economy was “highly uncertain”.
Therefore, the government’s capacity to withstand political pressure on the issue of cuts would decide the country’s fiscal recovery “in the near term”, the IMF suggested.
The report was critical of the government’s decision to acquiesce to parliament’s recommendation to restore the wages of independent commissions in January this year, and its commitment to pay civil servant pension contributions from May 2010 until wages were restored to September 2009 levels.
The IMF report acknowledged that “direct redundancies were proving difficult”, however “the transfer of employees to the private sector (which accounts for about two fifths of the planned payroll cuts) has taken place in line with projections.”
Nonetheless, the IMF 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.
(0)Dislikes(0)In part two of our comparisons between salaries of political appointees and civil servants, Minivan News examines the pay cuts initiated last year, parliament and the government’s promotion of state-owned companies.
The figures reported by Minivan News yesterday represented the fixed salaries of both political appointees and civil servants. The pay cuts made to salaries last October meant a 20 percent reduction for political appointees and a 15 percent reduction to civil servants’ salaries.
Press Secretary for the President’s Office, Mohamed Zuahir, said starting on 13 May 2010, civil servants and political appointees will get a 7 percent reimbursement from the government, which will go into a pension fund.
“Meaning those who had a 15 percent reduction will now only have an 8 percent reduction,” Zuhair noted.
Most members of the civil service are in the middle management services, who earn anywhere from Rf 7,680 to Rf 10,106 after the pay cuts. This rank includes directors, senior technical officers and deputy and assistant directors.
The wages of Permanent Secretaries have also been queried, as they are civil servants working for political appointees. They are not in the regular structure but are linked to deputy ministers.
Their fixed salaries were originally of Rf 20,500 plus Rf 15,000 for allowances. After the 20 percent pay cut which started in October 2009, they now earn a total of Rf 28,400 a month. This makes permanent secretaries the highest paid members of the civil service, followed by professors who now earn Rf 20,280 after the pay cuts.
Civil servants and political appointees
The figures obtained by Minivan News show the highest number of political appointees are island councillors, with 168 across the country. After the pay cuts, they are making Rf 9,600. In total, the government is spending Rf 1,612,800 per month on island councillor’s salaries alone.
The figures also show that 35 state ministers and 55 deputy ministers are currently working for the government. State ministers are currently being paid Rf 37,600 a month, while deputy ministers get Rf 28,400 per month, after the 20 percent salary reductions.
Together, the wages for state and deputy ministers add up to Rf 2,878,000 per month.
Despite Parliament’s decision to pass the decentralisation bill without the provinces act, and the government’s promise to reduce political appointees, former Utility Development Director at the President’s Office, Ahmed Nasheed, was appointed Deputy Minister of State for the South-Central Province yesterday.
His wages bring the figure up to Rf 2,906,400 each month.
Government-owned companies
Another point of contention has been the creation of government-owned companies which have been transferred from the civil service, such as the Malé Health Services Corporation.
Those who are critical of the salary cuts for civil servants have argued the government is still technically paying the wages of those working in these companies, which means government expenditure on wages has not reduced.
Zuhair said the creation of these companies was not only to reduce the civil service, but “it is also a more practical model.”
He said these companies are “self-sufficient and depend on earnings as a commercially viable business,” and are now relying more on Private Public Partnerships (PPPs) than on government subsidies.
Zuhair noted although many state-owned companies such as STELCO were receiving government subsidies in the past, new policies mean they will not be subsidised any more. “MNBC salaries were given out based on revenue,” he added.
Parliament
MPs are currently earning Rf 62,500 a month, and are among the few sectors paid by the state who did not take a pay cut last year.
Parliamentary sittings take place three days a week, and there are three Parliament sessions a year. The sessions are held for three months and are followed by a one-month break.
Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP for Hoarafushi, Ahmed Rasheed, said he would not support a reduction to MPs’ salary cuts because he is always helping his constituents by giving them money of his salary. “I am not using a single rufiyah from my salary,” he said. “Last month, I spent Rf 134,600 for my island’s people. When you look at it like that, 62,500 is not much.”
Rasheed said this money was used mostly for medical purposes, including bills from IGMH and even air fares to Sri Lanka for medical treatment.
He said people from his island “are very poor, and right now they don’t know what to do.”
Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP for Galolhu South, Ahmed Mahlouf, said if the economic situation was really that bad, “then yes, of course we would agree with lowering our salaries.” But, he said, “DRP and other opposition MPs don’t believe that the salary of any servant should be reduced.”
He said “Maldives is not going through such a bad economic stage,” adding that “even during the tsunami salaries weren’t reduced.”
Mahlouf said no one’s salaries should have been reduced, and “if we agreed to reduce it, it would mean we agree with the economic situation being that bad. That is why we are fighting for their rights.”
(0)Dislikes(0)Eight months after civil servants got their first pay cut, the political situation has deteriorated with law suits between the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and the Ministry of Finance.
President Mohamed Nasheed promised to reduce government expenditure, primarily by reducing the civil service and increasing privatisation in the country, and several privatisation partnerships are seeing the transfer of posts from the civil service to government-owned institutions.
Many opposed to the civil servant salary cuts have speculated about the amount paid to political appointees, arguing that it is unfair to cut civil servant salaries while paying large salaries and allowances to appointees. Minivan News has obtained the figures from both sides for the sake of comparison.
The civil service VS political appointees
The Maldivian government is currently spending approximately Rf 5 billion on civil servant salaries per year, approximately 74 percent of the Rf 6.8 billion budget. There are over 29,000 civil servants in the Maldives, comprising almost 10 percent of the population.
Documents obtained by Minivan News show that comparatively the government spends approximately Rf 173 million on the salaries of 354 political appointees per year, and around Rf 75.8 million on salaries for 77 MPs each year.
Labourers earn Rf 4,100 a month with the civil service, the lowest paying job in the CSC. The lowest paying job for political appointees is that of island councillors, who make Rf 12,000 a month.
The highest paying job under the CSC is that of a professor, with earnings of Rf 25,350 a month. Excluding the president and vice president, who earn Rf 100,000 and Rf 75,000 a month respectively, cabinet ministers earn Rf 57,500 a month.
The special envoy for science and technology, for example, earns Rf 45,000 a month, while an assistant professor under the CSC makes Rf 20,920 a month.
Press Secretary for the President’s Office, Mohamed Zuhair, said although political appointees get a higher salary, civil servants have better job security “since they have unlimited tenure.”
On the other hand, he said, political appointees can serve a maximum of ten years in their post, “unless they keep jumping parties,” since a government can only hold two five-year terms.
“A political appointee will fall with the government,” Zuhair added. “But a civil servant can serve for forty, fifty years.”
He said political appointees also have a more authoritative role than civil servants, justifying a higher salary: “If they are not in an authoritative role, how can they be effective?”
Zuhair said political appointees comprise less than two percent of the civil service, and they are the ones “who supervise and ensure the civil servants do their jobs.” Hence, they deserve a higher salary, he added.
Additionally, he said, not all political appointees are “appointed. Some of them are elected.”
One of President Nasheed’s campaign promises was reducing the “top-heavy” government by reducing the number of political appointees, and according to Zuhair, there are fewer political appointees under this government than the previous one.
Minivan News reported in April last year there had been 440 political appointees under former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s government, and at the time, there were 538 political appointees under President Nasheed’s government.
Zuhair told Minivan News today that when the civil service was created in 2007, the former government transferred many of its appointees to posts in the civil service “so in case they lost the election, they still have many people with them.”
He added the former government was “not counting right” and their numbers “weren’t technically correct,” as they had everyone, including muezzins, working for them as political appointees.
In mid-March 2010, Independent MP Mohamed Nasheed requested a list of political appointees and their salaries from the Ministry of Finance, to clarify exactly how many appointees were working under the government.
Another of President Nasheed’s promises was to reduce the civil service and thus reduce government expenditure. The health sector is one of the first industries to go through this transition.
Member of the CSC, Mohamed Fahmy Hassan, said there have been many posts which have been abolished from the CSC and transferred to independent institutions, such as TV Maldives and and newly formed Maldives Health Services Corporation.
“The number of civil servants will be less now,” Fahmy said, “but the question is, how do you define public service?”
(0)Dislikes(0)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.
(0)Dislikes(0)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.”
(0)Dislikes(0)The Maldives has no laws governing adoption as the practice is forbidden under Islam, Minivan News learned yesterday during an investigation of the staff shortages at the Kudakudhinge Hiya orphanage in Vilingili.
State Minister for Health and Family Mariya Ali explained that the courts permit a “long-term guardianship” as there is no ‘formal’ adoption law in the Maldives.
One consequence of this ‘informal’ system is that the Maldives maintains a reservation regarding adoption after signing the UN Convention for the Rights of the Child (CRC).
Communications Officer for UNICEF Humaida Abdulghafoor said there is no adoption law in the Maldives “but it is being looked into right now.”
“The Maldives has a reservation on adoption in the Conventions for the Right of the Child (CRC), but culturally, we have an informal system where extended families will look after a child if his or her parents cannot do so.”
“There is no formal structure,” she said, “and the laws are not very strong.”
Mariya explained that if a child cannot be cared for by his or her parents, the court must look for next of kin.
“According to the Family Law, there are a number of people they must check first,” she explained.
If no one is found to care for the child, then they must be placed under care of the state, but the Ministry tries not to remove children from their homes if at all possible, she said.
Mariya explained that a study carried out by the ministry on adoption under Islam identified that “clearly the Western form of adoption cannot happen.”
In the Western form of adoption, a child takes his or her adoptive parents’ surname, “but in Islam that cannot happen.”
The alternative is long-term fostering: “We want the children to know their roots, which means there won’t be any corruption of lineage.”
But this has no guarantees of permanence, and finding adequate foster care is a long process.
“It is up to us to find parents who don’t have a history of sexual abuse, who don’t have a history of fraud, who don’t have a history of other offences,” Mariya explained, meaning the ministry had to do an assessment of every person who came forward wanting to foster a child.
She said the process of assessment can take up to six months – “It is very difficult for us to find a home for a child because we don’t have proper legislation to support us.”
In the meantime, the ministry has now completed regulations on minimum standards for children’s homes. Mariya said now that the costing for these guidelines to be implemented is finished, “this week we will send it to the Attorney General’s office, who will then table it in Parliament.”
“As soon as this comes through it will be a guiding document for the workers,” she said.
Mariya explained that due to staff shortages at the ministry, there was a backlog of cases waiting to be processed.
“There is only one staff member doing the case work,” she said, adding that they were hoping to get some assistance from NGOs in fast-tracking the case work.
“Ideally, babies need to be placed with carers before they’re one year old. This is the year when they form attachments,” she noted. “For children to form healthy attachment, we need to place them soon.”
She said the ministry had expressed its concerns over staff shortages many times, but “have not had any feedback about whether we’re going to get more staff or not.”
Another issue is age: “Most carers and most families that come forward want babies,” Mariya said, adding that “very few want an older child.”
Because babies need be placed with a family as soon as possible, issuing the cases quickly is essential.
She said “most of the time parents want to be given the child permanently, “which takes even longer. If they request for temporary fostering we could at least place the child with the parents and then proceed with the process, but right now we don’t get such offers.”
Orphanage
Kudakudhinge Hiya children’s home in Vilingili was started in 2006 and is a state-run initiative managed by the Ministry of Health and Family. They are currently caring for 51 children and is the only government institution of its kind in the country.
Minivan News reported yesterday that there was a shortage of cooks. Community Health Officer at Kudakudhinge Hiya, Iyaz Jadulla Naseem, said the staff shortage was due to the Civil Service Commission (CSC) removing the post of cook from civil service.
Spokesperson for the CSC Mohamed Fahmy Hassan said there are still some offices and institutions which have cooks working under the CSC, “but not island offices” because the post of cook had been “abolished by the Ministry of Home Affairs.”
“A children’s shelter is under the Ministry of Health and Family,” Fahmy said, “and therefore, if they require a cook, I’m sure the CSC would appoint someone.”
He said the home’s administration had to make a request, which then had to be submitted by the Ministry of Health and Family to the CSC.
“They are in a special category, and any post that is required to safeguard the children will be created.”
Mariya Ali said the recent staff shortage “was due to downsizing” and added the ministry has “brought up the issue of staff shortage eight times” in meetings at the ministry.
“It is dangerous not to have enough staff [in a children’s home],” she said. “The CSC has a blanket formula… there are actually not a lot of staff taking care of the children.”
Mariya said the corporate sector was also helping the ministry, and “one major resort operator is willing to give us a doctor who will be visiting the facility regularly.”
On the issue of the cooks, she said the ministry has “advertised and approached the corporate sector to ask if they are able to give us a temporary solution to the cook, but they have not given us an answer.”
A helping hand
There are several ways to help Vilingili Orphanage. Mariya said there are two funds at the moment, and there is a donation box at Kudakudhinge Hiya, one at Hulhumalé ferry terminal and one at IGMH.
“Or people can approach us directly [at the Food and Drug Authority building] and we will direct them where to go.”
Mariya said setting up a pay-pal account for people to make deposits into the fund’s bank account was “a great idea” and she would look into it.
“We are also planning a sponsor a child campaign,” she said, which would hopefully ease the strain on the government to care for all the children at Vilingili.
“It is the responsibility of all of us to care for these children,” Mariya said.
She added that she hopes “different corporate sectors and even the public, individuals, can come forth and say to us ‘we are willing to cover the staff costs for one person.’ Then we could have enough staff.”
She noted the corporate sector is already sponsoring staff at the Ministry of Health and Family to go on a training course in England with UK-based children’s charity, Barnardo’s.
(0)Dislikes(0)A video of group of men entering the office of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) on Sunday and intimidating staff is circulating on the internet.
Secretary General of the CSC Abdullah Khaleel said the group arrived at 1:05pm and “spoke very rudely. Their actions were violent.”
“We tried to find out their purpose for coming to our office. I asked them to come sit in the meeting room to speak about the matter, but they refused,” he said.
”They were mainly talking about the civil servants’ salary issue, they were angry that we were calling on the government to reinstate the salaries,” Khaleel said.
Khaleel said staff called the police at 1:11pm but officers police arrived after the incident had ended and the men had left.
He said that the crowd consisted of around nine men, but noted that only a few of them were rude.
”Two of the nine tried to take the three angry men outside the office, and they finally left,” Khaleel said.
He said that before leaving the office, the men threatened that they would be gathering a crowd of people in front of the CSC office.
Spokesman for Maldivian Democratic Party MDP Ahmed Haleem claimed that MDP did not send anybody to enter or threaten the Civil Service Commission. .
Haleem stated that ”as 90 per cent of Maldivians are MDP members, there might be a MDP supporter involved in [any] such scenes.”
According to the Elections Commission of the Maldives MDP had 28,995 members in December last year, or 9.3 per cent of the population.
Press secretary for the president’s office Mohamed Zuhair said that ”even if there was a MDP member [involved] it does not mean that they were representing MDP. They are members of the public as well.”
He said he would not support the act, as “nobody should enter a government’s office against security procedures.”
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