Malé City Council has denied the accusations made by the Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Community Empowerment, saying that council employees had broken into a warehouse under the ministry on Friday night.
Minister Ahmed Mahloof had told Mihaaru news on Saturday that Malé City Council members had broken the locks to a warehouse under the ministry, and attempted to take some of the goods stored there. This case was filed with the police late last night.
"We call on the city council to stop this immediately. You will have to take responsibility for goods lost from there and damaged goods," Mahloof had said in Dhivehi on Twitter, while accusing the council of taking goods from the warehouse.
However, the council said in a press release published to clarify the matter that the ministry was using a warehouse built on a plot of land that belongs to the council. The warehouse, built near Malé Hiyaa flats and near Rumaalu Jagaha, is on land that is registered to the council. They also said the ministry had built the warehouse there without their permission.
"If Malé City Council had permitted a party to build a warehouse there or had rented the land to any party, there are no documents at the council that show such an agreement," the council said in their press release.
As the council was unaware who had built the warehouse there, they put an announcement in the government's gazette from December 4–10 last year, announcing that the owner of the goods stored in the warehouse could claim them.
The announcement noted that if the owner of the stored goods did not come forward to the council and inform them by December 10, or submit any documents that they may have, the council would disassemble the warehouse and bring the goods stored there under the ministry's ownership.
However, since no one had come forward or submitted any documents to the council until the previous day, the council decided the warehouse had no owner and started to clean it out. This was because the council cannot use the land the warehouse is built on right now for any purpose, and they want to be able to use it for more profitable reasons.
The civic body said that when they found out goods were stored in the warehouse, they tried to safely transfer them to a place under the control of the council.
"The Malé City Council has always worked in accordance with all laws and regulations made in the Maldives and therefore, the process of vacating this warehouse is being carried out in accordance with the law and regulations," the city council had said in their statement.
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