Secretariat of the Former President. What? Where? How?

It’s been a while since we have been hearing of statements coming out of the secretariat of the former President. It seems that these statements come out under official government seal. A fact that a number of people are objecting. I have not heard any official statement from the Government about the existence of such a secretariat. I was therefore quite surprised to see an entity called the Secretariat of the Former President in the list of Government officials published on the Information Ministry website. http://www.maldivesinfo.gov.mv/home/files/downloads.php

According to the list the secretariat has 6 high ranked staff. They consists mainly ex- President Office and Palace staff who worked closely with Maumoon. What struck me most was that according to the list these people still retain their former titles. That means that in the secretariat there is a deputy minister level staff, two executive director level staff, one director level staff, one deputy director level staff and one assistant director level staff. It is most likely that there may be other staff in this secretariat.

Its time someone answered some questions about this secretariat.

1. How was this secretariat authorised? In President Nasheed authorised this, what is the legal basis for such an authority?
2. Are these people getting the salary that they were paid while they were in the previous government? In which case the total staff cost may be over Rf 100,000 per month. Are we people going to foot the bill?
3. What are these people doing there? Is Gayoom running a little government from this secretariat? Or is this a front for a DRP cell?
4. Where are these people working? Obviously they can’t all be working at Alivaage.

It is also time that Nasheed’s government told the people the exact amount they are paying to entertain our former President.