The Malé Taxi app will be available for download on the App Store next week, Economic and Transport Minister Saeed announced. Since the state-run service was launched on April 2 using a hotline before moving to a web portal, the electric vehicles have completed over 18,000 trips to date, he said, citing MTCC data on average wait times of 8.4 minutes and average trip duration of 12.2 minutes. The announcement comes amid unresolved corruption allegations over the MVR 13 million (US$ 843,000) app development contract awarded without competitive bidding. Separately at the same press conference, Saeed claimed credit for major infrastructure projects, including the Sinamalé Bridge and airport development, undertaken during the Yameen administration, before acknowledging under questioning that the former president deserves significant credit, calling him a "visionary." Despite Yameen's departure from the ruling coalition to form an opposition party, Saeed insisted that President Muizzu holds deep affection for him, saying "we are all one team."
Information Commissioner Ahid Rasheed responded point by point to government spokesman Mohamed Hussain Shareef 'Mundhu's' claim at his weekly press briefing that "invalid" and bot-generated RTI requests were increasingly common. Mundhu said institutions needed to know who they were responding to before providing information, a position that contradicts the law, which only requires full identification when requesting another person's private data, not general government information. Ahid said the RTI Act sets out specific grounds for declining a request, with prescribed timeframes for communicating them. "Silence is not a lawful response – even to questionable requests." He went through Mundhu's claims one by one: requests submitted to the wrong authority must be transferred to the correct one, not ignored; multiple requests for the same information from different authorities or people are not abuse but a signal that the information should be proactively disclosed; the RTI Act does not require requesters to justify why they want information; legitimate exemptions like commercial confidentiality or national security require formal written responses citing the exemption, not silence; and "common good" is not a test that exists in the Act. Public authorities cannot invent grounds for withholding information beyond those prescribed in law. Of 712 cases the Information Commissioner's Office received in 2025, 541 – or 76 percent – were filed because a public authority simply did not respond at all. The exchange follows Wednesday's public dispute between Ahid and Attorney General Ahmed Usham over the latter's claim that the RTI Act was being abused.
Baarashu MP Ibrahim Shujau defended the presence of his Official Events' equipment in a PSM warehouse, saying it was stored there after the company managed the state broadcaster's recent Quran and Madaha competitions as a CSR initiative, noting that a PSM board director also serves as a director of Official Events. The explanation followed a report by Adhadhu that raised questions about the arrangement.
The Department of Judicial Administration indefinitely suspended two senior officials – general administration and front office head Zakariyya Hussein and Judicial Academy director general Ahmed Ali – after both declined requests to resign. The suspensions followed the resignation last month of Chief Judicial Administrator Amjad Mustafa, a close associate of both officials who appointed them after taking office. Zakariyya previously resigned from the Civil Service Commission in 2020 ahead of a parliamentary removal vote over discrimination allegations. Ahmed Ali resigned as the education ministry permanent secretary in 2024 while suspended over a CSC investigation.
A foreign national who sustained severe burns in the April 9 fire at Faafu Feeali's petrol shed and harbour died after about a month of treatment, police confirmed. The man, whose nationality was not disclosed, died last Monday and his body was repatriated the following day. The fire, which started on a fuel vessel docked at the petrol shed, spread to four additional vessels at the harbour before being brought under control.
MDP activist Maimoon Mohamed was summoned to police over allegations he assaulted an officer during the party's April 18 protest in Malé. Maimoon had been arrested at the protest itself on charges of obstructing police duty and disobeying orders, but released by the court with conditions when produced for remand. He is accused of violating the Peaceful Assembly Act by gathering on Malé streets in a way that disrupted public transport and businesses, obstructing police duty, and assaulting an officer.
The defence ministry signed an MoU on Civil Maritime Security with the Australian Border Force Command, establishing a framework for joint training, coordinated patrols, and information sharing to strengthen regional maritime security cooperation.
