Govt blames undisclosed political appointments on technical issue
Some of the unsuccessful candidates from PNC parliamentary primaries have recently been appointed as deputy ministers and ministers of state.
By
Mohamed Muzayyin Nazim
The recent appointments to political positions in this government have not been posted on the President’s Office website. The President's Office said the information of the latest appointees was not available due to a technical issue.
The website has not been publishing information on appointments to positions since last month, despite the increasing number of political positions in the government and due to widespead public criticism of it.
President's Office Communications Minister Ibrahim Khaleel said the current website of the President's Office is "very old" and therefore there are technical problems. So "a lot of changes" are being made to the website, Khaleel said.
“Because of a [technical] problem, we have been delayed a little bit internally,” he said.
Khaleel said the issue will be resolved within a week and the information will be available on the website as before.
Some of the unsuccessful candidates, nominees and others from the PNC parliamentary primaries held late January have recently been appointed as deputy ministers and ministers of state. None of them are named on the President’s Office website.
People are thus being appointed to positions, despite President Mohammed Muizzu having said in his presidential statement that people will not be recruited except for essential positions.
When asked about it, Khaleel said on Sunday:
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As the President has said, "no one will be hired for positions except those who must be hired
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The President will not exceed the number of political positions allocated previously
There are more than 300 political positions listed on the President's Office website.
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Excluding the President's Office, eight ministerial level appointments have been made
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The President’s Office has 12 appointments at the ministerial level and seven at the state ministerial level
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79 have been appointed at the level of State Ministers for ministries and six people at the level of State Ministers for other agencies
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Nine have been appointed to the President’s Office as Deputy Ministers
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149 appointed as deputies to ministries; the Sports Ministry alone has 12 deputies and the Local Government Ministry has 13 deputies
The President promised during the presidential election that he will keep the number of political appointments to 700 in his government. However, the high-paying positions have surpassed 300 already, raising concerns among the public and the opposition.
