Male’ City Council, on Monday, has extended the window to seek assistance in submitting complaints to the new list of recipients of flats under the ‘Gedhoruveriya’ housing scheme.
‘Gedhoruveriya’ is a social housing scheme that was launched by the former Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) administration. The first 4,000 units under the project were built in Hulhumale’ Phase II by the Fahi Dhiriulhun Corporation (FDC). The MDP administration released the list of recipients of the first 4,000 flats in its last days. However, the list drew the scrutiny of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), following allegations of irregularities and corruption in the award of the flats.
 The corruption watchdog ordered for the suspension of the issuance of flats as it investigated the case, before finally giving the Housing Ministry the go-ahead to proceed in February 2024, after which the Housing Ministry initiated a lengthy review of applications.
The new list was released on February 27th after a verification process that lasted over a year.
Housing Minister Dr. Abdulla Muthalib said that the Housing Ministry had verified only the 4,939 applications which made it to the original list of recipients. He said that the remaining flats will be allocated after evaluating the other 15,000 applications.
Muthalib also said that the main reason 53 percent of the applicants who made it on the original list of recipients were declared eligible was because of issues with documents submitted to prove 15-year residency in Male’.
Subsequently, Male’ City Council announced its decision to provide its assistance in submitting complaints to the new list on March 11th, with a deadline set to seek assistance on March 30th.
The Council, via an announcement on the government gazette on Monday, said the service will be continued at the council’s Public Services Section throughout the week, except for Fridays, until April 15th.
In this regard, the service will be available from 10:00 am – 14:30pm and from 21:30 pm to 23:00pm until April 6th and from 09:00 am – 16:00pm and from 21:00 pm to 23:00pm for the remainder of the period.
The first 4,000 flats built under the ‘Gedhoruveriya’ scheme include:
1,250 two-bedroom flats
2,750 three-bedroom flats
According to the point scheme published on the Government Gazette in 2022, applications would need a minimum of 73 points to be eligible for two-bedroom flats and a minimum of 76 points for three-bedroom flats. Meanwhile, the remaining three-bedroom flats were supposed to be awarded through a draw among applicants who scored 75 points.
As per the original list of recipients, 4,939 applicants were deemed eligible for the flats.
ORIGINAL LIST:
Total recipients: 4,939
Two-bedroom flats: 1,218 applicants
Three-bedroom flats: 3,721 applicants
However, following verification, only 1,820 were deemed as rightful recipients.
The new list had also prompted publish backlash over how the points were allocated.