Government defends secrecy of Solih’s US trip receipts
The State does not consider the receipts of expenses to be within the meaning of information.
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By
Fathmath Ahmed Shareef
The government on Monday defended the past President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih government's stance at the Supreme Court to withhold the information regarding the receipts for the expenses of Solih’s trip to the United States.
Then President travelled to New York in 2021. The expenses of the trip, where he was accompanied by several senior government officials, were rumoured as exorbitant on social media.
After that:
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Requests for details of the expenses of the trip were submitted to the President's Office, and provided. However, receipts for the expenses requested was denied
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The Information Commissioner's Office (iCOM) ordered for the receipts to be issued, under the right to information
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When the President's Office went to the High Court to stop the issuance of the receipts, the High Court upheld the Information Commissioner's order to issue the receipts
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The High Court's decision was appealed at the Supreme Court. The Registrar of the Supreme Court initially rejected the case. However, the decision was reviewed and the Supreme Court justices decided to accept the case in October
At the first hearing in the case on Monday, the Attorney General’s (AG) office defended the former government’s decision to keep the receipts secret.
The state also sought to quash the High Court's decision to disclose the receipts.
The state told the court:
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The President's Office has prepared a list of all the expenses requested
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All the details are information shared based on receipts, a copy of which is not required to be shared with the person who requested the information
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The State does not consider the receipts of expenses to be within the meaning of information
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The High Court did not do right by directing that copies of the receipts be shared
In response to these claims, ICOM told the court that the applicant had made it clear that the request for information to share receipts of the expenses was to verify the details of the expenses shared by the President's Office. iCOM sought a stay on the High Court's decision.
iCOM said:
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The President's Office said the receipts could not be shared for security reasons because they contained personal information
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The State had not contended at the very first instance that the receipts do not fall within the meaning of information and cannot so contend at this stage
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Anything maintained by a public body in any form is information; that information must be released
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Both iCOM and the High Court have directed that copies of receipts be shared, with any personal information that fits exceptional circumstances deleted
Solih's visit to the United States was to address the 76th UN General Assembly. The General Assembly was then presided over by the then Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid.
