248 political appointees let go as of yesterday: Government

A total of 248 political appointees have been dismissed from various ministries as part of the government's efforts to reduce expenses, President's Office Spokesperson Heena Waleed has confirmed.

President Dr Mohamed Muizzu's decision to remove 228 political appointees within 15 days was announced on 15th September. While the deadline passed yesterday, Heena said as of yesterday, 248 employees were let go.

A system to monitor the performance of political appointees to monitor and improve their performance and efficiency will also be implemented soon, she added.

The President initially announced that seven state ministers, 43 deputy ministers, 109 senior political directors and 69 political directors would be removed.

While this number has been exceeded, the government has not provided the details of those dismissed.

This decision will save the government MVR 5.7 million per month, said President Dr Muizzu.

However, initial efforts to downsize political appointees began about four months ago. According to Mihaaru News, some appointees were let go of at the time based on their performance, while there were discussions to transfer others to state owned enterprises.

The salaries of political appointees accounts for one percent of the governments total budget, totalling around MVR 120 million. This is about MVR 10 million per month.

According to reports based on information shared by the government's various institutions, the amount of political appointees in the country exceeded 1200 initially.