Parliament to probe harassment allegations by ex-Tourism Ministry staffer

Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed has ordered the Committee of the Whole House to conduct an inquiry over the allegations of harassment made against senior Tourism Ministry officials by a staff of the Ministry who later resigned.

The employee who resigned after making the allegations has been named as Fathimath Sharma, who was working as a senior planning officer.

The letter sent by Sharma to the interim Tourism Minister Fayyaz Ismail has been forwarded to President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and Commissioner of Police Mohamed Hameed. The Speaker of the parliament announced that he had also received the letter and was ordering the Committee to inquire into the allegations made in the letter by Sharma.

What were the contents of the letter?

The letter by Sharma read she had been working in the Ministry since 2016 and that she had never been reprimanded as a civil service employee. She said that she had been subject to direct and indirect harassment by senior political appointees of the Tourism Ministry and connected civil service employees. She said that she had complained to the former Tourism Minister Ali Waheed regarding the harassment who in turn said that he had reprimanded the accused employees verbally and taken the necessary steps against them.

Sharma said that she had been subject to harassment by senior officials who wanted to obtain a certain goal politically. She said that rumors have circulated about her that has tarnished her name and reputation. She said that although some employees of the Ministry may not speak up about the incidents inside the Ministry due to fear and intimidation from political appointees in the Ministry, she was more than willing to expose the truth, even if she was the only one to do so.

The letter went on to state that she could no longer serve i9n the Ministry due to fear of her safety and the incidents that were occurring in the Ministry.