Monday's meeting of Parliament's Committee on State Owned Enterprises was brought to an abrupt end after MPs disagreed over the Committee Chair MP Ahmed Easa's call to pose all questions to Fenaka together, after which the SOE would present answers to all.
Senior officials of Fenaka were present in Monday's meeting of the Parliament's Committee on State Owned Enterprises, awaiting questions from MPs regarding the recent problems in providing electricity in Fuvahmulah.
The meeting started under the usual system of MPs posing a question, to which Fenaka would respond, followed by the next MP then presenting their query.
Hence, Central Maafannu constituency MP Ibrahim Rasheed (Bondey) of The Democrats began proceedings through placing the first question.
However, once Fenaka finished responding to this query, the Chair of the committee made an irregular intervention.
He announced that from that moment on, the structure of posing questions was being changed. Instead of consecutive answers and questions, all questions by all MPs were to be presented together to Fenaka representatives, he said.
Once all the questions were asked, it would then be the time for Fenaka to proceed with responding to all these queries.
MP Easa claimed that he was adopting this structure so as to save time. He assured that as Chair, he would ensure that all questions are provided a sufficient response. In the case that an MP raises an objection that their query was not sufficiently addressed, they will be granted an opportunity to repeat their question.
Although some MDP MPs agreed to let the committee meeting proceed with these changes, some other MPs, from other parties as well, voiced dissatisfaction with the newly announced arrangements.
"Acting in this manner takes away the purpose of this committee. The Chair cannot decide to proceed like this. The Chair has to conduct the meeting in a way that the committee members approve of," those opposed voiced out.
With raised voices and verbal altercations, the microphones being used in the meeting were finally shut down and the meeting brought to a halt.
Meanwhile, during the first query which Fenaka was able to respond to, the company stated that the issues in electricity supply in Fuvahmulah still had not been permanently resolved.
Fenaka stated that the reason for their failure to proceed projects of establishing power houses or expansion of electricity services in islands is the high amounts of debt the company currently is in.
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