President plans to reduce political appointments ‘as much as possible’

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu said on Monday that he wishes to reduce political appointments as such as possible, and will also be reducing employees in state-owned enterprises by 33 percent.

President Muizzu’s administration has been rolling out major changes since its defeat in the local council elections and referendum on April 4. This includes the mass resignation of half of the cabinet, after which some of the ministries were merged and the cabinet downsized from 20 to 15.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, President Muizzu said he plans to evaluate all political appointees based on performance, and reduce political appointments as much as possible.

But he said that he doesn’t have a target percentage by which to reduce political appointees in his administration.

President Muizzu’s administration is also working on reducing the number of employees in SOEs by 33 percent, which the government says will also be done by looking at their performance.

“It’s not that we have such a percentage when it comes to political posts within the administration. But the target is to reduce is as much as possible, based on performance,” he said.

President Muizzu said that SOEs must not conduct any recruitment without public announcements in the future.

“Hereafter, there should not be any individual in any position in any of the companies who is hired through a political route or based on a political motivation or because someone said so,” he said.

President Muizzu pointed out that he can continue to hire political appointees to ministries using the powers available to him under Article 115 of the Constitution. But he said that such appointments will be merit-based.

He said that his minimum requirement for state ministers is a Master’s degree, and the minimum requirement for deputy ministers is a Bachelor’s degree.

President Muizzu describes the new efforts to downsize his administration as a bid to govern in accordance with “aspirations of the people.”