City Council reverses decision against disclosing wage details

The Male’ City Council has disclosed details regarding wages and remunerations of the council after initially rejecting a request to do so. 

The Council reversed its decision after the Information Commissioner’s Office instructed the Council to do so, under the constitutional Right to Information. 

Ahmed Aiman Latheef, a private individual made an official request to obtain information related to the wages, allowances and remunerations of the Male’ City Council in August last year. After the Council refused to disclose this information, Aiman exercised his right to submit the case to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Aiman stated that he fully believed that any requests of information made officially to a state institution must be provided.

In a hearing of the issue, Ali Naseer Qasim, the associate legal counsel representing the City Council had repeatedly argued that the information requested by Aiman would be disclosed in the annual report of the Council issued at the end of every year. 

Today, was the last day for the information to be disclosed. The Council website weas updated with requested information today. Wages of local and foreign employees were published separately on the Council website. 

The statistics showed that MVR 2.68 million was spent on the wages of local employees of the Council on a monthly basis. MVR 1.64 million was spent on the wages of expatriate workers per month. In total, the Council has 524 employees including 332 local and 192 expatriate workers. 

A large portion of the wages are spent on Council members. Statistics show that Council members earned MVR 382,500 as wages per month. Mayor Shifa receives MVR 47,500 while the Deputy Mayor receives MVR 35,000. Each remaining Councilor receives MVR 30,000 per month as wages.