The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has asked the Civil Service Commission to not include officials who have familial ties with candidates when conducting employment interviews.

The ACC announcement comes after it conducted an investigation into allegations that an employee hired to the public school in Milandhoo island of Shaviyani Atoll involved corrupt misconduct.

The allegations claim that the candidate in question was the mother of a one of the interviewers and had influenced his peers into hiring her, while there had been a ‘number of more qualified candidates’.

ACC’s probe had further found that the interviewer in question had ranked other candidates contesting for the position much lower than the other interviewers, despite not having been involved in ranking the candidate related to him.

Therefore, the commission said that there is reason to believe that this may have been an attempt to bring the eligibility of the other candidates to allow the candidate of his choice to acquire the position.

ACC further stated that four interviewers ranking all the candidates and three ranking a single one is not a procedure that can legitimately imposed and followed.

A total of 10 candidates had applied for two available caretaker and janitorial positions at the school in Milandhoo. The panel included four interviewers.