The Maldives Civil Service formally came into being on 1st May 2008, by virtue of the Civil Service Act. There was no fanfare nor grand functions to mark it, as far as I know from any media sources.

Perhaps, this was probably because the commissioners entrusted with onerous task of running a state institution that the the government and the President of Maldives himself believed to be in breach of the constitution.

The Maldives Civil Service born out of the incompetent Maldives Government Service, has nothing new in it accept that it is now headed by an independent commission appointed with the blessing of the parliament, and which was taken to court by the country’s Legal Reform Commissioner on the first day of it’s legal existence.

The Civil Court issued a court order to suspend part of the law, specifically article 73 (b), agreeing with a case against the Civil Service Commission from members of the ruling Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party. The President of Maldives sympathized with them and those who were retired from service by the commission, and vehemently criticized “the inhuman actions” of the commission in the last DRP General Meeting.

Legal Reform Minister Nasheed justified the words and actions of his party colleagues, in his opening remarks of the first Permanent Secretaries Orientation Program, on Sunday. Read his own interpretation of what he said, in his own words, here.

Civil Service has come with such bad taste that the people will wonder, wasn’t it better to have a government service that was better even with corruption, nepotism and other ills that it were accused of.

Read a related article from Minivan here.