Minivan news
President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has proposed a series of new amendments to the Civil Service Act endorsed by parliament in May 2007 and ratified by the president himself, including delaying mandatory retirement for 65-year-olds for another two years.
The significant amendments also include a proposal to exempt the police force, immigration service, customs officials and “certain types of executive officials” from the Act, which makes the civil service independent from government under a new Civil Service Commission.
With a presidential election due later this year, the government’s move has been widely criticised by opposition groups as politically motivated.
But Information Minister Mohamed Nasheed argues on his personal blog that the amendments are “justified based upon constitutional, legal, legislative and public policy developments...since introduction of the Civil Service Act in May 2007”.
President’s Proposals
Nasheed, who is also responsible for legal reform, has said the police, immigration service and customs must be subject to “another piece of specific legislature.”
But he has not specified why this was not covered by the original Civil Service Act, which will come into force in May 2008.
The Civil Service Commission (CSC), created last year, has already begun announcing how it will carry out its mandate, including by banning most “political activity” for civil servants.
Meanwhile the amendment on retirement has been proposed for compassionate reasons, according to Nasheed, so that retirees can “mentally prepare for...retirement;...be told of the exact compensation mechanism awaiting them when they are sent home; and...find adequate alternatives.”
The CSC had already announced mandatory retirement for over-65s from May, and says it has not been informed of the new proposed amendments to the Act.
It had been working on proposals to compensate those who would be forced to retire, according to vice president Dr Abdul Muhsin Mohamed.
The amendments will now be considered by the Majlis (parliament) after its opening this Thursday.
Political
Opposition politicians were quick to condemn the move as a vote-winner ahead of the country’s first multi-party elections, due later this year.
Ibrahim Ismail (Ibra) of the Liberal Party, Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) President Dr Mohamed Munavvar, Mohamed Naeem (Monaza) of the Maldivian National Congress (MNC) and Mohamed Hassan Manik, Vice President of the Islamic Democratic Party, were in agreement that the amendments aimed to secure support for the president’s re-election campaign.
Yet Ibrahim Shafiu, co-ordinator of the ruling Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), argued that whilst the proposals might “seem” politically motivated, the President had the “best interests” of Maldivians in mind.
The country’s 35,000 civil servants – amounting to over a tenth of the population – received pay rises of 20 to 60 per cent at the start of this year.
Ibra, who also chairs the constitutional drafting committee, said the amendments were a move by the President to “undermine the spirit” of parliament, and that it was “the President’s duty” to implement legislature that he himself had ratified. The President “should step down” if he cannot implement ratified legislature, Ibra added.
Solution?
Munavvar said that rather than “amending the constitution” whenever the president “failed” to implement it, the government should delay implementation to “buy time” for all parties involved.
Similarly Ibra told Minivan News the solution should be to offer “ample compensation” for the retirees, and added he did not believe it was the president’s capacity to amend the Civil Service Act.
The CSC will become fully independent on May 1, when the Civil Service Act becomes law.
President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has proposed a series of new amendments to the Civil Service Act endorsed by parliament in May 2007 and ratified by the president himself, including delaying mandatory retirement for 65-year-olds for another two years.
The significant amendments also include a proposal to exempt the police force, immigration service, customs officials and “certain types of executive officials” from the Act, which makes the civil service independent from government under a new Civil Service Commission.
With a presidential election due later this year, the government’s move has been widely criticised by opposition groups as politically motivated.
But Information Minister Mohamed Nasheed argues on his personal blog that the amendments are “justified based upon constitutional, legal, legislative and public policy developments...since introduction of the Civil Service Act in May 2007”.
President’s Proposals
Nasheed, who is also responsible for legal reform, has said the police, immigration service and customs must be subject to “another piece of specific legislature.”
But he has not specified why this was not covered by the original Civil Service Act, which will come into force in May 2008.
The Civil Service Commission (CSC), created last year, has already begun announcing how it will carry out its mandate, including by banning most “political activity” for civil servants.
Meanwhile the amendment on retirement has been proposed for compassionate reasons, according to Nasheed, so that retirees can “mentally prepare for...retirement;...be told of the exact compensation mechanism awaiting them when they are sent home; and...find adequate alternatives.”
The CSC had already announced mandatory retirement for over-65s from May, and says it has not been informed of the new proposed amendments to the Act.
It had been working on proposals to compensate those who would be forced to retire, according to vice president Dr Abdul Muhsin Mohamed.
The amendments will now be considered by the Majlis (parliament) after its opening this Thursday.
Political
Opposition politicians were quick to condemn the move as a vote-winner ahead of the country’s first multi-party elections, due later this year.
Ibrahim Ismail (Ibra) of the Liberal Party, Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) President Dr Mohamed Munavvar, Mohamed Naeem (Monaza) of the Maldivian National Congress (MNC) and Mohamed Hassan Manik, Vice President of the Islamic Democratic Party, were in agreement that the amendments aimed to secure support for the president’s re-election campaign.
Yet Ibrahim Shafiu, co-ordinator of the ruling Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), argued that whilst the proposals might “seem” politically motivated, the President had the “best interests” of Maldivians in mind.
The country’s 35,000 civil servants – amounting to over a tenth of the population – received pay rises of 20 to 60 per cent at the start of this year.
Ibra, who also chairs the constitutional drafting committee, said the amendments were a move by the President to “undermine the spirit” of parliament, and that it was “the President’s duty” to implement legislature that he himself had ratified. The President “should step down” if he cannot implement ratified legislature, Ibra added.
Solution?
Munavvar said that rather than “amending the constitution” whenever the president “failed” to implement it, the government should delay implementation to “buy time” for all parties involved.
Similarly Ibra told Minivan News the solution should be to offer “ample compensation” for the retirees, and added he did not believe it was the president’s capacity to amend the Civil Service Act.
The CSC will become fully independent on May 1, when the Civil Service Act becomes law.
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