Details of state ministers, deputy ministers ‘missing’ from PO website

Details of individuals appointed as state ministers and deputy ministers under President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s administration has been ‘missing’ from the official website of the President’s Office for nearly two months.

Since the establishment of the President’s Office website, successive administrations have routinely published the profiles and photographs of individuals appointed to political positions.

While this information was available during the early period of the current administration, updates appear to have ceased amid a series of cabinet reshuffles, transfers between ministries, new appointments, and revisions to ministerial portfolios.

Notably, details of several officials recently appointed were never updated on the website. Moreover, the pages previously containing the details of state ministers and deputy ministers have been entirely removed from the President’s Office’s website.

As such, there is currently no publicly accessible means of verifying the identities of individuals serving in senior positions across government ministries.

Addressing the issue on April 15, Minister at the President’s Office for Strategic Communications, Ibrahim Khaleel, said the information had been removed as part of efforts to update the website following changes made to the structure of ministries.

"The updated pages will be published alongside changes prompted by the reduction of ministries to 15," Khaleel said at the time.

However, despite two months having passed since then, the information has yet to be publicized.

Sun has sought comment from the government’s chief spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef (Mundhu) regarding an update on the matter, but no response has been received so far.

Despite this absence of this information, the Information Commissioner’s Office recently praised the President’s Office for achieving 100 percent compliance with proactive information disclosure requirements.

Nevertheless, the absence of such key information, which was previously available to the public, has prompted concerns over the government’s commitment to transparency and compliance with information disclosure standards.

As the administration approaches its third year in office, it is also notable that the government has yet to officially disclose the total number of political appointees.

Furthermore, delays in publishing the names and details of political appointees, as well as an apparent reluctance to release such information, have become increasingly evident in recent months.