Corrections’ civil staff files petition to PO over lack of housing allowance

Civil employees of Maldives Correctional Services have sent a petition to the President’s Office seeking resolve for lack of housing allowance.

While a total of 80 civil staff are employed at the law enforcement authority, the petition was filed with a total of 44 of their signatures.

Besides the President’s Office, the employees had filed the same petition with the Ministry of Defense and the Maldives Parliament as well.

The housing allowance is allocated for officers and civil staff of the Correctional Services as per clause 49 of the Regulation on the Employment of Maldives Correctional Services, under the Parole Act.

As per the regulation, the allowance is given to employees and officers who are not provided accommodation by the authority. Correctional Services allocates the allowance under a set policy on the basis of budget availability.

The petition highlights that while the Correctional Services employment regulation will become 10 years old, civil employees at the authority never received the allowance. The documents provided along with the petition further provides proof that the allowance had not been extended owing to budget constraints, as the financials prove the authority had a surplus of between MVR 9-10 million by each fiscal year’s end.

The petition further highlights that the Ministry of Finance refuses disbursing the housing allowance despite the surplus.