ACC silent on flat list days since complaint was filed

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has remained silent for days since a complaint was filed with the corruption watchdog asking for a criminal investigation into the decision to allocate ‘Gedhoruveriya’ flats to 315 applicants who scored 75 points, before allocating units first to those who scored 76 points and above.

ACC had remained silent on the matter despite efforts by Sun to obtain a comment since the beginning of this week.

The Fahi Dhiriulhun Corporation (FDC) has developed 4,000 flats in Hulhumale’ Phase II - the first of housing units built under the ‘Gedhoruveriya’ scheme, a social housing project launched by the former Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) administration.

The FDC initiated the process of signing agreements with the recipients of the flats on July 21st amid concerns surrounding flats being distributed without publicizing the recipient list and with names allegedly being withheld. Furthermore, the signing of flat agreements for a list of less than 100 individuals has been suspended, adding to the public's frustration.

The process was suspended after it uncovered discrepancies in one of the lists of recipients sent by the Housing Ministry.

As per the original policy publicized by the former administration, three-bedroom flats were supposed to be allocated first to eligible applicants who scored 76 points and above, and then a draw held to allocate the remaining units among applicants who scored 75 points.

However, Housing Ministry said that it has uncovered that draws were held to allocate flats to 315 applicants who scored 75 points, before allocating flats to 301 applicants who had scored 76 points and above.

The Ministry expressed its belief was a deliberate decision to benefit a specific group of individuals and cause harm to specific individuals, and a move that damages the interests of all applicants.

As such, the Ministry asked the corruption watchdog for an investigation into the case on August 6th. Notably, individuals who were omitted from the list despite receiving higher points had staged a protest at the Housing Ministry the next day.

To this date, they remain in a state of confusion with no updates regarding the flat list.

Prior to this, FDC’s Managing Director Hamdhan Shakeel attributed the delays in releasing the flat list to ongoing works at the flats which had been omitted by previous administration.

While Hamdhan assured these works were nearing completion, MDP had denied the allegations.

In this regard, Saif Fathih, the Malé City Councilor for Galolhu North, vehemently dismissed the claims, labeling the excuse as "nonsense" and a mere pretext to postpone the public disclosure of the list.

The list of recipients of the flats, which was released during the last days of the MDP administration, was also the subject of an investigation by the ACC. The corruption watchdog ordered for the suspension of the issuance of flats, before finally giving the Housing Ministry the go-ahead to proceed in February 2024.

The incumbent administration released a new list of recipients after a verification process that lasted a year in February. But following public backlash over high number of disqualifications, decided that the flats would be issued based on the original list.