Civil Court orders overdue MVR 23 million to be paid for school tablets

Civil Court of Maldives has ordered the state to pay the unpaid MVR 23.6 million for the 71,000 tablets procured for students' use at government schools.

The contract to procure the tablets was awarded by the Maldivian government to Maxcom Technologies back in 2017, as part of a project to digitalise all Maldivian schools. The total value of the project was MVR 151 million, but the state withheld MVR 23 million as penalty for delays in the project. This led Maxcom to sue the state to recover the funds.

In the Civil Court's ruling yesterday, it was detailed that the government had extended the deadline for completing the project multiple times, and that the government did not complain about delays in the project since extending the deadline to June 2018.

As such, the court said that Maxcom completed the project as per the agreement, and that the government has no legal standing to withhold the remaining payment. Civil Court gave the government until 1st December 2024 to clear the payment.