Frontline Workers Unpaid for Days

Volunteer frontliners with the National Rapid Response Team (NRRT) have not received any financial stipends or aid for many days.

The government had allocated a stipend of MVR 500 for every day worked by NRRT volunteers. Speaking anonymously to The Maldives Journal, an NRRT volunteer claimed that some volunteers had not received any aid for the past three months, or more.

It has also previously come to light that the stipend to be paid to an NRRT volunteer had been transferred to the bank account of a supervisor appointed by the Health Protection Agency. A total sum of MVR 25,000 had been misdirected into their account.

According to another NRRT volunteer, one of the main reasons as to why there were delays in payments was because the HPA's administrative staff were "slow" and "careless" with time-sensitive paperwork that had to be submitted to the Ministry of Finance. Typographical errors and mistakes with filling out forms also accounted for further delays, according to the volunteer.

Volunteers also complained of poor working conditions in addition to the delayed stipends. For instance, they claimed that even after completing all of the tasks slated for the day, they would be forced to remain at Dharubaaruge until a certain amount of time had passed. They also claimed that supervising HPA employees interacted "too harshly" with them.

The Health Emergency Operations Centre have declined our requests to clarify these claims.

Many volunteers at the NRRT are medical and nursing students, and the remainder are police officers, nurses, and civil servants from various government offices.