The Maldives Pension Administration Office (MPAO), which manages the retirement funds of the majority of the Maldivian workforce, has been operating without a Chairperson, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for an extended period.
The previous leadership of the Pension Office resigned following attempts to execute a transaction involving MVR 2.4 billion, a move equivalent to printing money. In the wake of this controversy, several top executives and the majority of the board members stepped down.
The first to resign from the board in opposition to the transaction was Mohamed Saruvash Adam, who represented the private sector. He stepped down on October 22 last year.
Despite multiple recruitment announcements by the Pension Office to fill this vacancy, the position remains unoccupied to date.
Following Saruvash, the office’s CFO, Hawwa Fajwa, resigned on November 4 last year.
The Pension Office has issued five separate announcements seeking a replacement for Fajwa; however, the CFO position remains vacant.
Ashraf Rasheed, who represented the Ministry of Finance on the board, resigned in December. The Ministry has since appointed Aminath Shazra Moosa as his replacement.
Months after the initial wave of resignations, the Chairperson of the Board, Ahmed Inaz, resigned on February 1 this year.
The day after Inaz’s departure, applications were opened for the Chairperson position. Despite the announcements, the post remains vacant.
Following Inaz, the CEO of the Pension Office, Sujatha Haleem, also resigned. Although she has left the post, no announcement has been made to recruit a successor.
The third board member to resign was Mohamed Maadhin Latheef, who also represented the private sector. The vacancy created by his departure has yet to be filled.
When contacted to clarify why the appointment process for these key leadership and board positions has been prolonged, the Pension Office stated that they have not received a sufficient number of qualified applications.
Currently, with the absence of a Chairperson and two of the four private sector representatives, the board—which should legally consist of eight members—is operating with only four. The remaining members are Shazra, Social Security representative Asif Haneef, and private sector representatives Mizna Ahmed and Abdul Majeed Ali.
It remains unclear whether the MVR 2.4 billion bond transaction, which triggered the mass resignations of the leadership and board, was ultimately executed. Investment disclosures from the Pension Office up to the end of last year show no record of investment in a long-term dual-currency bond of the nature previously described.
