Report: Soodh
Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, ex Foreign Minister who resigned from the government last August has said that appointment of a foreigner as spokesperson at Government Information Press Service, GIPS, would incur more costs. Government has decided to re structure its media briefing service by transferring the function of Strategic Communications Unit, SCU, under the President’s Office and establishing a Government Information Press Service, GIPS under Information Ministry.
Speaking to Velidhoo News yesterday Dr. Shaheed said by appointing a foreigner spokesperson instead of a Maldivian the budget allocated would be doubled.
Dr. Shaheed was the first government Chief Spokesperson before taking on the Foreign Minister’s position said that he is dismayed by the statements of Spokesperson Mohamed Shareef, Mundhu. Dr. Shaheed said that Mundhu did not quite understand the reasons why he appointed foreigners to represent Maldives in various missions abroad.
“I appointed foreigners to three missions to represent Maldives; when I took over the Foreign Minister’s job, government was faced with the reconstruction of the country after the tsunami of 2004, during that time every effort was made to reduce government spending, those days I was looking at getting aid for the reconstruction efforts in the most economical and efficient manner, in order to raise funding I established missions in Brussels, Tokyo, Geneva and Washington” explained Dr. Shaheed.
Dr. Shaheed noted that of late government is manning such missions with ministerial level appointments and that such actions would increase government expenditure allocated to such a position.
“During my term in office, an amount of Euro 18,000.00 were spent on Brussels mission monthly, this is only the basics, I stopped all that and appointed a foreigner for only US $ 5000.00, I had a Maldivian working under the foreigner to get the necessary training; however if I were to appoint a Maldivian instead of a foreigner then government will have to spend some thing like US $ 40,000.00 per month on him, accommodation has to be provided, a vehicle has to be provided, schooling for his children and many other expenses are there” noted Dr. Shaheed.
Ex Foreign Minister Dr. Shaheed noted that government will have spending will be more or less in these lines for foreigner spokesperson.
Government is of the opinion there are no suitably qualified, loyal Maldivian to handle the Spokesperson post said Dr. Shaheed. He noted that there are several Maldivians working for the government who can take on the foreign media.
At GIPS, under the Information Ministry, 2 spokespersons are to be appointed, one for handling local media and the other to handle foreign media. According to Information Ministry, GIPS would be setup within the next 2 months.
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