WAMCO cut the amount of waste it accepts in the Malé region after a fire at its Thilafushi site on Sunday night, put out on Monday morning. Parts of the site are closed, disrupting operations at the Malé, Villimalé and Hulhumalé transfer stations. WAMCO said it is working to restore normal operations.
The National Pay Commission cut the salaries and allowances of ministry permanent secretaries and council secretaries general from next month, along with three IT job matrices. Permanent secretaries, previously on around MVR 53,000 (US$ 3,437), will get a basic salary of MVR 23,935 and an executive allowance of MVR 23,065. Island council secretaries general on rank 16 go to MVR 18,000 basic and MVR 6,620 allowance, down from about MVR 35,000, while those qualifying on diploma and experience go to MVR 10,000 basic and MVR 7,000 allowance, down from about MVR 32,000. The cuts come after recent increases raising city Women's Development Committee presidents' salaries to MVR 20,000.
President Muizzu removed Savaaheli from Addu City Council's jurisdiction to allow tourism development. The Decentralisation Act gives the president power to set council boundaries. Savaaheli lies between Feydhoo and Maradhoo-Feydhoo. The move comes a week after the Addu City Council sought a party to develop an entertainment and recreation facility on the island.
The Prosecutor General's Office decided not to charge a Sri Lankan excavator operator over the death of a Bangladeshi WAMCO worker at Thilafushi, finding insufficient evidence of negligence. Ameen Mia, 24, went missing on January 26 and his body was found two days later. Police had arrested the 32-year-old operator on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter. The PG office said a police reconstruction found the operator could not have seen Ameen Mia because of the lighting, and that he was about 10 feet from the excavator. It noted he was not authorised to be in the area under his assigned duties and that WAMCO had restricted access to the landfill on safety grounds. Police believe he was struck by the excavator while clearing waste, and that his body was carried along with the rubbish and buried under it; CCTV shows the excavator hitting him, after which work continued. The operator has asked to be repatriated.
MNDF firefighters put out a fire on a launch at Hanimaadhoo harbour after the engine caught fire as it was started for a trip. The fire was reported at 12.15am and brought under control by 12.45am. The launch's captain suffered burns and other injuries, and was moved from the island's health centre to Kulhudhuffushi Regional Hospital for further treatment.
New board members were appointed to three state-owned companies: Fathimath Ghaziya Fathuhee to MIFCO, Hussain Abdul-Wahid to MFMC and Enas Naseer to BCC. The appointments come as the PCB requires SOEs to cut staff numbers by 33 percent within three months of its April directive. SOEs employ about 42,000 people, according to finance ministry data from April.
Staff are being dismissed on islands where Fenaka's utility operations have transferred to STELCO, Adhadhu reported. Notices sent through Fenaka tell workers they were not among those selected in STELCO's screening process. Five have been dismissed in Kurendhoo in Lhaviyani, two of them after five years' service, with a month's notice pay. Adhadhu said party affiliation was taken into account, with some PNC-affiliated staff dismissed and then reinstated. STELCO has taken over utilities on 25 islands from Baa to Meemu atoll, and dismissals are expected across all of them. The MDP said the downsizing across SOEs would mean 14,733 job losses affecting 50,000 people.
Two Egyptian men arrested over a fight in Kaafu Himmafushi on Sunday have been deported, police said. They were remanded for two days after being taken to court, and police asked Immigration to deport them and bar them from returning after completing the investigation.
BML began rolling out updates to Aaya, its assistant on the mobile banking app and internet banking, for submitting banking requests. Customers can no longer send requests through the in-app messaging feature. BML said customers can still connect with staff through Aaya.
A man accused of breaking the glass door of Azeeza Mosque in Hulhumalé last Monday damaged the mosque again on Wednesday night, police said. No one was injured and the second incident is being investigated separately. Police said he has been isolated from the community and that authorities are working to provide him assistance, having earlier indicated action would depend on his condition.
The agriculture ministry began distributing pesticide to councils to treat the spiralling whitefly infestation damaging coconut palms around the country, after trials at the Hanimaadhoo Agriculture Centre. The pesticide, Yejiaching, was originally brought in for the coconut hispine beetle under a Chinese-assisted pest control project, and is being allocated to councils in proportion to their palm numbers. A team from the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences is working on longer-term solutions, and a national laboratory has been set up for plant biosecurity research.
The Maldives backed a Saudi foreign ministry statement rejecting Houthi accusations that the kingdom is besieging Yemen. The foreign ministry said it recognised Saudi efforts alongside Yemen's legitimate government and the UN to bring peace and ease suffering there, and its development and humanitarian assistance to Yemen, and reaffirmed solidarity with Saudi Arabia.
The Audit Office says Centre Enterprises appears to have submitted invalid documents to claim money over goods it says it supplied to government agencies between 2006 and 2009, and has called for forensic analysis of the documents and a criminal investigation. A report covering three cases found the company is seeking MVR 31.99 million over drinking water tanks supplied to the environment ministry in 2007-08, though MVR 26.3 million of the MVR 27.06 million contract had been paid, with the rest withheld after 336 containers were not supplied. Two further claims against the Department of Medical Services seek MVR 25.33 million in penalties over leather containers and MVR 83.94 million plus an equal penalty over medical equipment; the audit found letters the company submitted about the equipment appeared to have been fabricated in DMS's name. An earlier report last October examined a separate US$ 5.15 million claim against DMS.
