Zameer says political appointee costs below 1% of state spending
Zameer said the government was implementing expenditure control measures, including plans to reduce staffing levels.
Finance Minister Moosa Zameer said on Wednesday that monthly expenditure on political appointees accounts for less than 1 per cent of total government spending.
Zameer made the remarks during a press conference held by a ministerial committee formed to address potential economic impacts arising from the Middle East conflict.
He was responding to a question on whether the government’s cost-cutting programme was consistent with maintaining a large number of political staff.
The question also referred to reports concerning staffing levels at the Maldivian Embassy in Malaysia and claims that political appointees there were being rotated every three months.
In response, Zameer said the government was implementing expenditure control measures, including plans to reduce staffing levels.
He said downsizing could not be completed immediately, as essential services had to continue without disruption.
“The expenditure on political appointees accounts for approximately 0.9 per cent of total government expenditure, which is less than 1 per cent,” Zameer said.
He added that political appointees account for 3.9 per cent of the state’s total monthly payroll.
The Minister also said salaries of political appointees were not increased during recent pay revisions and had instead been reduced by 10 per cent since last year.
“As President Mohamed Muizzu has stated, the process of reducing staff is underway,” he said.
Zameer did not directly address the specific question regarding staffing at the embassy in Malaysia.
The appointment of ruling party activists to political posts has been common across successive administrations in the Maldives. The current government has faced criticism over the number of such appointments and the lack of publicly available figures on their total cost.
