Two months' salary remaining from amounts deducted from civil servant's salaries: CSC

Civil Service Commission (CSC) has said that commission last year reinstated the percentage deducted from the salaries of civil servants in 2010.

CSC's statement follows remarks by former president Mohamed Nasheed while speaking at Usfasgandu last night that the 15 percent deducted from the salaries of the civil servants was deducted with an intention to reinstate it at a later date. Nasheed said that he was concerned that the amount had not been given back to the civil servants.

In an interview to the Sun, the President of the Civil Service Commission Mohamed Fahumy Hassan said that the commission had reinstated the amount deducted in 2010 starting from July last year. He said that an amount of two month’s pay from the amounts that was deducted, is still pending.

“The money is being given. Government decided that the money would be repaid within one year’s time, following the Supreme Court sentence regarding the case. It is being repaid. There are two months remaining. The full amount will be given back within the two month’s time,” Fahumy said.

He said that the method of repayment is based on the salary structure, and thus the amount gained by each employee dependent to that condition.

“There were some delays in providing the money to some employees who were civil servants when they salary was reduced. This happened because they were outside the civil service structure. The employees in the health sector were under the corporations. The employees of the mosques were under the Islamic Ministry, but later changed to the councils. It took a bit of time to sort out things for these employees. The heirs of the deceased have also been arranged to receive the money, so there should not be an employee who has not received it,” Fahumy said.

Government reduced the salaries of the civil servants for a three month period starting from 1st October 2009 to ease economic difficulties. CSC had cooperated with the government to reduce the salaries, and later reinstated the salaries back to the former amounts in January 2010. The budget passed by the parliament also included the full salary amounts. However, the Minsitry of Finance had ordered all institutions to reduce the amounts in their draw up the salary sheets, to which the institutions complied.

The issue was contested in court by the CSC, after which the Civil Court had stated that the Ministry of Finance did not have jurisdiction to order the institutions to draw up reduced salary sheets. High Court and Supreme Court had also held up the decision.