Gedhoruveriya Scheme: Ministry rejects residency documents from councils

The Minister of Housing Dr. Abdulla Muththalib has revealed the authority has decided not to accept the residency confirmation documents issued by council authorities in evaluating eligibility of Gedhoruveriya scheme recipients.

During Tuesday’s press briefing, the minister said the authority has received legal counsel against accepting residency confirmation documents issued by councils. He said that council bodies are not mandated in keeping records of the public’s residency details.

“ACC has highlighted some individuals have provided documents that do not meet regulatory criteria, when applying for the scheme while several other documents were submitted during the complaints period. The auditor general has counselled against accepting these documents,” the minister commented.

He further said any document that is outside the scope of the acceptable ones as stated in the complaint portal, will be deemed as legally inadmissible.

Since getting the mandate of housing matters under the ministry, Dr. Muththalib has decided to process the verification of the recipients list announced earlier on November 15^th last year, instead of evaluating each individual applicant. He said this move was to ensure that the all matters related to the social housing scheme were aligned with President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s policy.

Although the recipients list was publicized previously, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had intervened and stopped any proceeding, citing significant discrepancies in the list. Following this, the government later decided to re-evaluate the list.

The former Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)-led government had decided to award housing to all eligible 15,000 recipients who applied for the social housing scheme.