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Transition Committee declares social housing flats distributed unfairly, points not considered

14 November 2018, MVT 21:35
Member of President-Elect Solih's Transition Committee for the Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure, Former Housing Minister Mohamed Aslam. PHOTO: MIHAARU
14 November 2018, MVT 21:35

President-Elect Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s Transition Committee on Wednesday claimed that the incumbent government did not distribute the flats allotted under the social housing programme according to the number of points scored by applicants.

In a press conference held by the transition committee for the Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure, former Housing Minister Mohamed Aslam stated that the flats were distributed under the authority of a committee of politicians. However, he did not mention the names of any politicians that were involved in the scandal.

“Points were allotted for each criterion accordingly. However, after the score was finalized, it was sent to straight to the decision-making committee,” said Aslam.

“The committee is formed entirely of politicians and the decisions made were not shared with civil servants nor [were records] in office", he said.

Aslam insisted that although the flat applicants that had filled the form received points accordingly, the final allocation of the flats did not take place according to the points scored.

"The process of distributing flats to the applicants was not transparent. A certain process was applied, forms were handed in and even the data from the forms was entered into the system, said Aslam. "Yet upon analysis, the data indicates end result does not necessarily comply with the points that were allotted."

According to Aslam, the transition committee is still figuring out the process followed in the decisions regarding the distribution of the flats.

“As most civil servants were not privy to all of the information, we have not been able to clearly figure out and solve this issue. Many of the staff involved in the process were [externally] contracted as well,” said Aslam.

Aslam stated that operations within the administration faced many difficulties, noting that Maldives Road Development Corporation (MRDC), councils and other similar institutions had been brought under the ministry's wing as well.

“The Housing Ministry has turned into an institution that is too large to manage,” said Aslam. “It seems, simply looking around Male', we all bear witness to the result [of such decisions]."

"Just as an example, would be having to redo every project a second time."

According to Aslam, despite being responsible for major projects, the Housing Ministry did not hire project supervisors to look over any of the work undertaken.

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