CSC demands restored salaries be included in next year’s budget

The Civil Service Commission (CSC) has called on the government to include the restored salaries for the civil servants in next year’s budget.

In September last year the Finance Ministry and the Civil Service Commission agreed to reduce the salaries of civil servants for three months because of the country’s poor financial circumstances. The matter became controversial towards the end of September when the Finance Ministry refused to restore all of the salaries to former levels.

The CSC has since taken the Finance Ministry to court, winning the first round in the civil court and forcing the government to appeal in the High Court.

At the same time, in its Country Report for the Maldives, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) acknowedged the “intense political pressure” but maintained that the restoration of public sector wages “would have a large fiscal impact”, and prevent economic recovery “in the near term”.