ACC has said that it can only reach a decision on whether or not to publicize the detailed list of ineligible recipients of flats after further deliberations.
Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) said on Wednesday they have not yet reached a decision on publicizing the list of recipients who were on the final list of the flat awardees of the former administration's Gedhoruveriya housing scheme, but were found in the recent investigation to not meet the required criteria.
ACC was summoned to the Parliament’s Committee on Independent Institutions on Wednesday regarding a letter sent to the parliament by a citizen over the 4,000 flats being developed by Fahi Dhiriulhun Corporation (FDC).
If some of the applicants on the list, in fact, did not gain the points necessary to qualify, some members of the committee have requested ACC to share those names, or to inform those applicants why they did not qualify.
The members said that as ACC had shared that 60 percent of those on the flat recipients list did not actually meet the criteria, details of which applicants these are need to be revealed so that authorities can be answerable to them. Therefore some members asked whether this list would be publicized, and others asked whether the applicants would be informed of the decision, as well.
Answering the questions presented by the parliamentarians, the President of ACC Adam Shamil said the commission will have to further discuss whether they would publicize the list of candidates that did not qualify. They said no decision has been made on this matter yet.
"We have yet to discuss and make a decision whether to make the entire list public or not," Shamil said in response to a question from South Thinadhoo MP Abdulla Sanif.
Shamil said, after investigating the list of beneficiaries, the commission advised Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to go ahead with the process of allotting flats to those who met the criteria and had no been found to have no concerning issues in their applications.
"We have asked the Housing Ministry to go ahead within the rules and the basis on which we have set it. To speed it up, for example, we will give assistance to the ministry if they need it to proceed with the issues identified in the investigation," Shamil said.
He said that if there were delays in flat allotment, leading to people's rights being infringed, and as a result creating a possibility of corruption, then dealing with it falls within the mandate of the ACC.
When a permanent list of beneficiaries under the housing scheme launched by the previous government was to be released in two days before the end of the previous administration, ACC had then asked them to stop allotting the flats.
Around 300 people had complained about the flats once the list was published. After two months of investigation, the commission found that 60 percent of the 4,000 allottees did not meet the eligibility criteria. Of the remaining forms that met the criteria, only 20.7 percent of the applications did not have any error in them. The other 19.7 percent of the forms, had conflicting information even if they did meet the criteria.
Some members of the committee also questioned the authenticity of the commission's probe.
The ACC, however, maintained that it did not do anything like increasing points and that the probe was conducted by collecting data from pensions office, NSPA, economic ministry, civil service commission, education ministry and national registration integrated with the portal.
ACC maintained that while all this information had been readily available, they were not obtained when the application forms were initially evaluated.
Housing Minister Ali Haider had earlier said that he would take a decision in consultation with the Commission, the Attorney General and other government agencies after the ACC's investigation identified the issues involved.
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