Housing Ministry: Hearing missed due to a staff’s negligence; action taken

Housing Ministry, on Friday, Ministry was fined for missing an Information Commissioner Office (iCom)’s hearing due to negligence of a staff, thus, have taken action against the staff in question.

iCom, on Thursday, said they received a complaint after the Housing Ministry failed to respond to an information request under the Right to Information Act. The Commission detailed that they fined the Ministry by MVR 350 following its failure to attend a hearing scheduled in the case on November 7^th.

Housing Ministry released a statement on Friday in which they stressed that the Ministry allocates high priority to responding to information requests within the stipulated timeframe in order to ensure the Ministry’s undertakings are as transparent as possible.

The Ministry attributed being fined by iCom to the negligence of the staff and in this trajectory, said the staff in question have been penalized in accordance with the civil service regulations.

Housing Ministry further said it was undertaking efforts to strengthen the relevant procedures to prevent the repetition of such an incident in the future.