President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu's appointment of two advisors to the Finance Minister has taken the number of ministerial rank appointees who do not sit in the cabinet to 21.
The pair appointed as advisors were Ahmed Naseer and Ahmed Munawar.
As both were appointed at the ministerial level, the ministry currently has three ministers together with Finance Minister Dr. Mohamed Shafeeq, becoming the ministry with the most ministerial rank appointees.
Munawar was the Finance Minister during former President Abdulla Yameen's administration. He was appointed to the post on June 22, 2016 and served in the role until the end of Yameen's government.
Naseer was the central bank's governor from August 24, 2017 to July 24, 2019. He resigned amid an inquiry by Parliament's public accounts committee into serious allegations made against him by the then-head of the Maldives Monetary Authority's (MMA) Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
Towards the end of Yameen's administration, shortly before the 2018 presidential election, the FIU alerted the police to large sums of money deposited to Yameen's account.
Ahmed Ashraf, who was in charge of the FIU at the time, alleged at Parliament's public accounts committee that Naseer told him not to forward such cases to the relevant authorities at the time. Naseer denied the allegations.
21 appointees at minister rank
In addition to the 22 ministers in the cabinet, President Muizzu has so far appointed 21 individuals at the rank of minister.
Two of them were appointed without pay. They were appointed as Advisors to the President on trade and tourism.
Ministerial rank appointees earn MVR 66,000 as salary and allowances. Their wage bill is therefore MVR 1,254,000 a month.
Salary and allowances for the 43 individuals appointed at ministerial rank including cabinet members amount to MVR 2,706,000 a month.
