Local Government Minister Adam Shareef Umar has stated that even if atoll councils are abolished, a system will be put in place to handle administrative matters in the atolls. He believes it would be good to appoint people from the civil service for each atoll to handle administrative work.

The government is preparing to propose a constitutional amendment to abolish atoll councils and reduce the size of island councils. President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu recently said this amendment would be submitted in the next parliamentary session after the recess.

Speaking on PSM's "Raajje Miadu" program last night, Minister Adam Shareef said some people are misinterpreting the President's words. He clarified that the President said the atoll councils would not exist in their current composition. The Minister added that administrative work for atolls would be arranged in some other form.

"So in every atoll, even without an atoll council office, there will be a system to provide services to other islands and coordinate matters that need to be done collectively for the atoll. However, I believe this will likely be arranged through people appointed from within the civil service," the Minister said.

Adam Shareef said that just as various state institutions have permanent secretaries, appointing people at the level of permanent secretary or CEO from the civil service to the atolls would allow administrative tasks to proceed without any difficulty.

"In my opinion, these CEO-level appointees to the atolls should be from the civil service, and rather than a five-year term, I believe it's important to make these positions where they can stay longer than five years based on their performance or results," the Minister said.

Minister Adam Shareef further stated that if arrangements are made for long-term tenure in these positions, there's a high chance that capable people who will serve for an appropriate period to produce good results will be interested in these jobs.