The Information Commissioner's Office (ICOM) has decided to switch to working online from home starting today due to the poor condition of the office building.
The ICOM office is located at Billoorijehige in Male'. In an announcement, the ICOM said the office will continue to operate online due to the condition of the building.
Information Commissioner Ahmed Ahid told Adhadhu that the decision was taken in the interest of the employees after they started experiencing health problems.
“There was a little bit of fungus, mold. It got worse that some employees began facing skin problems. We decided that it was not the best environment for employees to go and work for hours,” he said.
Billoorijehige is more than 70 years old. ICOM moved to the building in 2015 and some renovations were done at the time.
According to the ICOM's annual report 2024, water leaks and mold problems surfaced shortly after the ICOM moved to the building.
Some news outlets recently reported that employees had to go home for toilet breaks because of the terrible condition of the toilets in the building.
The Finance Ministry gave the commission permission to rent an office building in October 2024. ICOM found a location but the total bid was valued at MVR 7.6 million.
It was sent to the Finance Ministry for a decision in November 2024. The ministry later informed ICOM that the matter would be undertaken by the tender board.
But the tender board did not do this work. Last week, the Finance Ministry again gave permission to ICOM to look for an office building.
Ahid said the commission had earlier planned to move to a bigger office, but was now working to find an office to begin operations as soon as possible.
