Former President Mohamed Nasheed has criticized the practice of distributing jobs to secure political support, saying it failed to deliver victory for former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in the 2023 presidential election and would not work for the current administration either.
Speaking at a press conference organised by the Maldivian Democratic Party’s Macroeconomic Committee, titled “Rising Debt, Diminishing Services,” Nasheed linked the issue to high recurrent expenditure and what he described as excessive staffing at state-owned enterprises.
Nasheed argued that entering a debt restructuring programme could have reduced the principal amount of the Maldives’ debt by 20 to 30 percent, lowered interest rates and secured an additional grace period.
He suggested that the government may have avoided restructuring because it would place restrictions on its preferred approach to managing public finances.
It is particularly difficult to restructure debt while maintaining such high recurrent expenditure. Even in the proposed budget, recurrent expenditure accounts for 70 percent of the total. When we refer to recurrent expenditure, we are primarily talking about spending on salaries
He also criticised staffing levels at state-owned enterprises, arguing that they impose substantial costs and contribute to wasteful spending.
Consider a powerhouse on a local island. Such a powerhouse might not even produce one megawatt of electricity, yet it employs fifty people. In contrast, a resort in the Maldives may produce five megawatts of electricity with no more than four or five staff members working in its powerhouse. This demonstrates the staggering scale of the ongoing waste
Nasheed said governments distribute jobs in the expectation of gaining votes, but argued that electoral results showed the limits of that approach.
The government hopes that these jobs will translate into votes. However, what they fail to realize is that no administration has ever secured an election by distributing jobs. It did not work in 2023, it did not work for this government in the local council elections, and it did not yield results in the recent referendum either
He maintained that employment created in this way was unsustainable, adding that lasting jobs must come from expanding economic activity rather than distributing positions for political purposes.
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