Attorney General (AG) Ibrahim Riffath has revealed that the state has paid USD440,000 in compensation to 19 employees who were unfairly dismissed by the previous administration. He made the remarks at a meeting with members of a sub-committee of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts.
During the meeting, AG Riffath said that work is being done to fairly resolve the cases seeking compensation, as instructed by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih after he assumed office. He noted that many cases have been filed to seek compensation for damages incurred by the previous administration and that 37 such cases were submitted to the settlement committee formed by President Solih. He added that the committee only gave the approval to pay compensation for the Noomadi case.
Furthermore, AG Riffath detailed that most of the cases were regarding employment and that the state has paid a total of USD440,000 compensation to 19 individuals who were unfairly dismissed from their jobs. They include two individuals who were appointed to the Employment Tribunal by the president, three officers of the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF), seven employees of the Maldives Police Service, five employees of Kaadedhdhoo Airport, an employee of the Maldives Correctional Service (MCS), and an employee of the Tax Appeal Tribunal.
Furthermore, AG Riffath stated that these cases were settled out of court because the government's policy is to negotiate and settle any case out of court if going through court proceedings is prohibitively expensive. He highlighted those state institutions were in the wrong in these cases and that new laws and regulations have been implemented to prevent such incidents.