Government initiates reducing political appointees across various ministries

The Maldives government has started to reduce the number of people appointed to political posts across various ministries.

According to information released so far, there are close to 40 political appointees each in most of the ministries.

However, the government did not disclose the total number of political appointees when queried under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

According to reports, the government has started reducing the number of political appointees in ministries. The number of political appointees in some ministries have been reduced to 25.

While some employees are being removed from their posts based on their performance, it has been learned that discussions are ongoing to transfer some employees to different state-owned enterprises.

In the past month or so, many employees have been transferred and removed in a similar manner.

When asked about the incident, Spokesperson of the President's Office, Heena Waleed, said that ministries will have the necessary staff required to carry out their work.

Heena added that employees will be hired and removed from their posts based on their performance, as has always been the case.

"The President has emphasized that his team should be a [well] performing team," she said.

President Dr Mohamed Muizzu had pledged not to increase the number of political posts in this government above 700.