Responses issued for all RTI requests: President

President Dr Mohamed Muizzu has stated that responses have been issued for all Right to Information (RTI) requests submitted to the President's Office and other government offices.

Speaking at the ceremony held to mark Maldives' 59th Independence Day, the President assured that this administration will be transparent, stating that no RTI requests submitted to any government office remains without being responded to.

"We are not scared, we are not hesitant to answer questions. The individuals submitting the question may do so with political activism as a reason, for a political reason. That is how most questions have been submitted so far. Even then, we will respond to those questions, and will continue to do so," the President said.

Although the President has said this, the issue of President's Office not responding to RTI requests, and failing to attend hearings held by the Information Comissioner's Office has become prevalent in the past months. However, the office responded to all requests via email on Friday.

The Information Commissioner's Office has recently appealed to the Prosecutor General to press charges against the President's Office for failure to comply with an RTI request, but that particular case concerns a request for information regarding vaccines that had been requested from the previous administration.

The highest number of RTI requests submitted to the President's Office recently concern the number of political appointees. The Office responded to all persons who had requested this information by saying this information is published on their official website. They further advised to approach separate ministries and offices to seek details of such appointments.

Although details of State Ministers and Deputy Ministers are published on the President's Office website, this information has not been updated for months. The website also does not disclose information about political appointees in posts other than these two.