Govt submits bill to transition LGA employees to civil service

The government has submitted a bill to transition employees of the Local Government Authority (LGA) to the civil service.

The amendment to the Decentralization Act, sponsored by North Fuvahmulah MP Hamad Abdulla, was presented at the Parliament on Tuesday morning.

According to Hamad, the main purpose of the bill is to strengthen the functioning of the LGA, and include waste management as part of municipal services that councils need to provide.

According to existing laws, the authority to appoint and dismiss employees of the LGA vests with the authority’s board.

However, the bill seeks to transition the employees of the LGA to the civil service.

As such, the authority to appoint and dismiss employees of the authority will be transferred to the Civil Service Commission (CSC), and the salaries and allowances will be decided by the National Pay Commission. It also states that the LGA will be headed by its CEO.

The bill stipulates that an employee structure must be compiled and submitted to the CSC within 30 days the amendments take effect, and the pay structure must be finalized and the employees migrated to the new pay structure within a specific period of time once the employee structure is approved.

Another key amendment in the bill is the inclusion of waste management as part of municipal services that councils are required to provide.

According to Hamad, the purpose of the change is to empower councils to provide a permanent solution to protect environments in islands and provide a permanent solution to waste pollution.

The government believes the amendments will affect significant positive changes to the operations and administrative structure of LGA.