Health Minister Geela Ali has said that a loss of over MVR 60 million was caused due to having to void agreements with various companies as projects awarded to them by the previous Ibrahim Mohamed Solih-led government to implement various health sector projects had stalled.

Responding to a question posed by Kelaa MP Abdulla Shareef in today's parliament sitting, Geela said that the government had needed to cancel agreements the previous government had made with various companies due to their failure to implement the project over extended time periods. These projects were then awarded to alternative companies, Geela said. 

Geela said that most of these agreements had had to be voided for reasons similar to what was faced by the Kelaa Health Centre, that the MP had asked about. 

Building up to his question, Shareef alleged that the government had contracted the Kelaa Health Centre project at an unreasonably high rate, despite there having been other companies which would have carried out the project at much lower cost. 

"As you have pointed out, several projects in the health sector had to be cancelled for similar reasons. More than MVR 60 million was wasted through projects awarded like this," Geela said. 

In response to a question from another MP, the minister said the government is undertaking efforts to recover the lost funds. 

Several members raised concerns that health sector infrastructure projects have been stalled, and asked when work would resume again. This question has been posed to the minister during previous appearances at the parliament as well.