Opposition seeks parliament oversight on creating govt ministries, political appointments
The current Article 116 of the Constitution does not require parliamentary approval for the number of ministries.
By
Mohamed Muzayyin Nazim
The opposition Democrats have proposed an amendment to the Constitution that would the government to seek parliamentary approval before creating ministries and appointment of political staff.
The amendment to Article 116 of the Constitution was moved by Eva Abdullah, MP for Galolhu North Constituency. The bill was first read in the parliament on Wednesday.
The bill has now been posted on the Parliament website. Even though the President has the power to determine the ministries to be created by the government and its scope/mandate, the amendment requires the President to submit the number of ministries and their functions to Parliament for approval within seven days from the date of creation.
In addition, the President must submit to Parliament the number of political employees required for the work of the ministries within two weeks from the date of establishment.
These amendments are to come into force on the date of passage of the Bill and its publication in the Government Gazette upon ratification by the President.
The current Article 116 of the Constitution does not require parliamentary approval for the number of ministries and the number of political appointees. The article currently requires Parliament to approve only changes to the mandate of ministries.
President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu took office on 17 November 2023 and formed a cabinet of 22 ministers along with the Attorney General. This is the largest cabinet ever formed. The new government has also faced intense public criticism over the hundreds of political appointees in its first 100 days.
There are more than 300 political positions listed on the President's Office website.
-
Excluding the President's Office, eight ministerial level appointments have been made
-
The President’s Office has 12 appointments at the ministerial level and seven at the state ministerial level
-
79 have been appointed at the level of State Ministers for ministries and six people at the level of State Ministers for other agencies
-
Nine have been appointed to the President’s Office as Deputy Ministers
-
149 appointed as deputies to ministries; the Sports Ministry alone has 12 deputies and the Local Government Ministry has 13 deputies
As a cost-cutting measure, President Muizzu has recently announced that he would not appoint any more people to political positions except under special circumstances. However, people have been appointed to positions since then.
During his presidential campaign, President Muizzu promised to keep political positions at 700. However, the high-paying positions having reached 300 has become a matter of concern for the public and the opposition.
