The audit report released this week alleged that a senior advisor to the Maldives mission to the UN in New York – hired under a two-year contract on August 30, 2010 when Dr Shaheed was Foreign Minister – left to work for Dr Shaheed in July 2011 upon his appointment as UN Special Rapporteur on Iran.

The report noted that such posts were neither part of the civil service nor considered political appointees, adding that the advisor was hired without a public announcement seeking qualified candidates.

Under the contract, the senior advisor was to receive US$2,672 a month as salary and allowances from September to December 2010 and US$3,672 a month from January 2011 onward.

However, on July 20, 2011, the Foreign Ministry sent a letter to the UN mission, the report noted, informing them that the advisor had been dismissed from the post as she would begin working for the Special Rapporteur on Iran “during the 6-month notice period”.

While approximately Rf800,000 (US$51,880) was spent out of the mission’s budget for salaries and benefits for the senior advisor, the report noted that “no information regarding the work could be seen from official documentation”.

“Misleading”

In an email to Minivan News, Dr Shaheed explained that the senior advisor was a foreign national who was an expert on international relations and diplomacy, slamming the audit report as “politically motivated and phrased to mislead the public.”

Shaheed claimed there would be “ample paper trail on the work she did for the Maldives from August 2010 to July 2011.”

“She was hired on the same basis as other expatriate advisors hired by the Maldives in diplomatic missions, and were political appointees,” he said, adding that the senior advisor resigned in July 2011 despite the audit report claiming the contract was terminated.