MDP accuses MNDF of negligence in Green Building fire

Opposition party Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has accused Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) of negligence and called for the resignation of the institution's leaders over the fire which broke out in the Housing and Construction Ministry building, which later spread to the adjacent Green Building that housed the Environment Ministry.

The fire that broke out in the Housing Ministry building on Thursday spread to the Environment Ministry's Green Building, burning both buildings beyond use.

MDP's Parliamentary Group leader MP Ibrahim Nazil told a press conference held yesterday that Defence Minister Ghassan Maumoon should take responsibility for the Green Building collapse.

"This is not a small matter. The building housing four offices burnt down. Half of the budget allocated for PSIP in next year's budget will go to this," Nazil said.

Nazil said that those who were negligent in the matter need to be found, and that MDP would try to reveal those individuals.

"We can see that MNDF was the most negligent. MNDF learned about the fire between 6:00 and 6:30 am. The fire was seen outside about one and half hours later. So it is questionable whether they did enough to control the fire," Nazil said.

Nazil said it is an important question whether the buildings of important ministries were left to burn to ashes. There are also questions about the decisions taken by the authorities to extinguish the fire, he said.

"According to sources the servers of the Green Building were on the ground floor. The employees were explaining how to remove the items. Why wasnt a wall knocked down onto Ameenee Magu and the servers removed from there? There are many questions like this," Nazil said.

Former Hoarafushi MP Ahmed Saleem said the biggest question is why it took so long to extinguish the fire. He said he could not believe why it took so long to extinguish the fire when the incident occurred so close to the MNDF fire headquarters, with wide roads around and the T-Jetty nearby.

Saleem also expressed concern over the burning of the concrete green building.

"The green building is a separate building on the block. The building used by the Housing Ministry and the Construction Ministry not meeting the building code standards may have caused difficult. But the adjacent Green Building is a modern building, separated from the Housing Ministry by a lane," Saleem said.

"Why was the building not saved despite ample time? And why wasn't the infrastructure in the building protected?"

Saleem said the employees of the Green Building asked the MNDF to save the servers from the fire. However, the MNDF informed the employees that the building would not be damaged, he said.

As such, Saleem said that the authorities have wrongly estimated that the building will not be damaged and claimed there is a serious negligence in the destruction of all public property there."

MDP has decided to ask the National Integrity Commission (NICT) to investigate the fire incident's management as well.