CSC has appointed a new Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Language, Culture and Heritage amidst allegations against bullying and harassment within the ministry.
Amidst ongoing allegations of harassment and bullying against Ministry of Dhivehi Language, Culture and Heritage's acting Permanent Secretary Athika Ibrahim, the Civil Service Commission (CSC) has appointed a new Permanent Secretary (PS) to the Ministry today.
The newly appointed PS to the Ministry is Mohamed Yaniu Hashim, who previously served at the Housing Ministry and Islamic University of Maldives.
Prior to Yaniu, Shamoon Hameed served as the Ministry's PS. However, his five year term ended in March this year.
After that, Director General Athika took up the position of Acting PS. However, her tenure has been riddled with allegations of harassment and bullying. The situation escalated to the point of nearly two dozen employees of the Ministry submitting a petition against her to the CSC.
According to the petition, multiple members of the Ministry's leadership appointed by the CSC, especially Athika, bullied and acted outside of the norms, without regard to the rights of the Ministry's employees and their job responsibilities.
The petition also said that bullying and getting staff to do anything they wanted at anytime has created unrest, anger and dissatisfaction in the workplace, confusion of work responsibilities, and a generally hostile working environment.
However, the petition did not resolve the situation and instead worsened the situation, the Ministry's employees said. As such, they are now seeking an audience with President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu in hopes of getting a solution.
In a press office held at the President's Office last month, Culture Minister Adam Naseer defended Athika and went as far as to commend her work. He also said that no complaints were officially sent to him against Athika.
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