MDP raises questions on fairness in the awarding of Vinares flats

In the wake of the rising allegations of land plots being unduly awarded to persons not on the Binveriya housing scheme list, opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has now raised questions about the awarding of Vinares flats.

The party said that it remains unclear how Housing Development Corporation (HDC) awarded the vacant Vinares flats that remained after the change in administration. They said that in light of current events, there are now doubts that they were awarded to the rightful recipients.

In a press conference held by the party, former Senior Executive Director at the Housing Ministry Mohamed Arif said that initially, the Vinares flats had been issued to those who submitted applications for them, those who wished to exchange with Hiyaa flats, those who received flats in Gulhi Falhu and those who had faced loss previously in the Vinares flats project when it was run by Sealife.

Arif said that out of the total 1,344 Vinares flat units, about 400 had remained unallocated when the previous MDP administration had left office. He said that it remains unclear how these flats had since been issued.

"From those from the Sealife time, we issued flats to everyone who applied for a Vinares flat. So all these remaining units, how, under what policy, have these been given? HDC MD has previously said there's a lot of people from Sealife, but nobody knows who that is. This means, whoever they claim as a Sealife person, we wouldn't know any better," Arif said.

"As the Sealife list is not in the public domain, we cannot tell now whether the remaining flats were allocated to people genuinely included in it," he said.

In a press conference held last night, the now suspended Managing Director of HDC, Ibrahim Fazul Rasheed, said that there are about 376 cases regarding Sealife. He said that while some of these people have been granted Vinares flats, cases of about 203 persons remain in court.

"With the Vinares flats we had, we prioritized finding resolutions for those who had cases in court. What we are doing here is resolving issues. I guarantee you that. We are not just giving away things here," Fazul said.

Fazul said that resolutions remain to be found for about 75 to 80 people on the Sealife list.

Mihaaru News has previously submitted a Right to Information request to HDC seeking details of flats allocated without public announcements. HDC did not provide a response to this request. In the subsequent hearing at the Information Commissioner's Office, HDC claimed that the Vinares flats were issued to those with whom the government had settlement agreements.