Information disclosed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has revealed that the ministry has had political appointees in excess of the limit set by the Foreign Service Act even from the point it was first ratified in 2021.
Information disclosed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has revealed that the ministry has had political appointees in excess of the limit set by the Foreign Service Act even from the point it was first ratified in 2021.
Article 115(f) of the Maldives Constitution grants the President the authority to appoint, dismiss and accept the resignation of members of the Cabinet, and such officials necessary for the proper functioning of the duties of his office.
Although the constitution does not set a limit on how many persons he can appoint as such, the Foreign Service Act limits the number of political appointees that can arranged for that sector.
Article 41 of the Foreign Service Act states that persons to the positions defined in Article 1 and Article 4 must be appointed in a manner that does not exceed 20 percent of foreign service employees.
Article 1 refers to Minister of State, Ambassador-at-Large and Deputy Minister positions.
Article 4 refers to other political appointees hired to fulfil a specific duty, outside of foreign service staff.
Both refer to political appointees.
After initially refusing to comply with RTI requests from Mihaaru, the Foreign Ministry finally shared details of employees on last Friday. As per this, the ministry currently employs a total of 269 employees. Of this, 129 are political appointees, and 140 are foreign service staff.
When taking these figures into consideration in light of the Foreign Service Act, 20 percent of 140 staff would be 28 staff. Any political appointees hired beyond this number would, in effect, be employed against the law.
The current number of political appointees reach 48 percent of the total number of employees.
This stipulation was included in the Foreign Service Act so as to allow those in foreign service to advance in their careers and to grant them priority.
However, it has been a constant complaint over subsequent administrations that Maldivian embassies in foreign countries have a much higher percentage of political staff than foreign service staff.
At the end of the previous administration, Foreign Ministry had a total of 253 employees, of which 116 were political employees, and 137 were foreign service employees, the details shared by the ministry show.
Sign In
