Vice President Abdulla Jihad has reminded civil servants to put aside their political differences as they ‘are serving the people on behalf of the administration in office at the time’.

He made the statement while speaking at the opening ceremony of ‘Civil Servants Conference 2018’ on Friday night, where he stated that the current administration’s decision to increase the salary of civil servants ‘is a way of appreciating their work’, while noting that appreciating the work ‘will improve their performance’.

Highlighting the various ‘challenges and setbacks’ faced in the public service sector and by the public, the vice president noted that one of the themes of this year’s conference is the importance of ‘formulating a policy to recruit employees based on their competency and capability’.

He said that the Civil Service Commission (CSC) ‘should always continue to work on enhancing the services provided to the public, by utilizing the latest technologies available in the globalized world’, adding that this would enable the Commission ‘to cater to the needs of the public, and be able to be in line with development’. He also emphasized the importance of ‘incorporating and utilizing technology and minimizing paper work in providing the services to the people residing in all the island across the country’.

Also, at the conference, VP Jihad reminded the civil servants of the importance of putting aside political differences, as they ‘are providing public services on behalf of the administration at the time’.

While Vice President Jihad said this, there have been numerous reports of civil servants being forced to attend ruling party events, with those who do not attend the said events getting penalized one way or the other.