Process of establishing new ministries to begin next week

President’s Office has said today that working processes of formation of the two new ministries would begin during the coming week.

Abbas Adil Riza, Spokesperson at the President’s Office, told Sun Media Group today, that tasks involved in the establishment of the Ministry of Gender, Family and Human Rights, and Ministry of Environment and Energy would begin next week.

The People’s Majlis approved Government proposal to form two new ministries during the last week.

“The Majlis approved establishment of these two new ministries last week, and all tasks would be complete within the coming two weeks. We have already requested the Ministry of Housing to arrange for office buildings for the two ministries”, said Abbas.

Abbas also said that no new staff would be employed to work in the two ministries. Instead, staff in old ministries handling the tasks would be transferred. “Even now, there are units that work in the areas concerned, and staff working in those units would be transferred to the new ministries”, said Abbas.

President Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik said last Wednesday that the two new ministries would not add to the expenditure of the government considerably.

The President had also said that ministries were created hastily, during the 11 days following 2008 presidential elections, and that a number of large ministerial establishments were merged during the process. “This was done with the plan to restructure at a later date. However, it was not done, and the system resulted in neglect of many important areas, notably women and children”, said the President.

The President said that the new Ministry of Human Rights would be doing research, and taking steps to improve areas such as rights of women, children, and labourers. He also said that human rights needed to be mainstreamed in all programs conducted by all government agencies.

“We do not believe that the works of the new ministry would be conflicting with the mandate of the Human Rights Commission. the main purpose of the Human Rights Commission is to monitor the protection of human rights, and to bring to notice violations and neglect”, said the President.

The President also said that the new Ministry for Environment and Energy would bring a new momentum to the government’s efforts to protect environment.