Former Feydhoo MP Mohamed Nihad has been appointed State Minister for Tourism after the President announced plans to reduce state expenditure.
Nihad was appointed as a state minister last Saturday, Adhadhu has confirmed. He was one of the 13 MPs who left the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) at the end of the MDP government and joined the People's National Congress (PNC).
A state minister is paid MVR 43,000 a month as salary and allowances from the state budget. That is MVR 522,000 a year.
In this year’s presidential address five months ago, President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu pledged to freeze political appointments. However, several political staff have been appointed since then.
As public finances deteriorated, he announced a raft of cost-cutting measures on June 27. The measures include reducing the number of political appointees and reducing expenses for marking special occasions, the President said at the time.
In a post on social media X, the President said political posts will be reduced to bring down the government’s recurrent expenditure.
The government came to power with a pledge to limit political appointees to 700. But based on information gathered from various sources, Adhadhu estimates that the number of political staff in this government is close to 2,000.
However, the government has yet to disclose the official number of political staff.
