Housing list controversy deepens as Malé mayor rejects reevaluation

"God willing, the work to verify the details of the list will be completed and announced by the end of this month," President Mohamed Muizzu pledged on Thursday during his address at the opening of parliament, characterising the verification process as a "sensitive effort" that the government must undertake.

But the president has reneged on a promise to involve the Malé City Council in the re-evaluation process, Mayor Azim told the Maldives Independent.

"We can't accept the list. How can we accept a list when the veracity is questionable?” said Azim, a member of the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party.

The former MDP government’s project – funded through a line of credit from the Indian ExIm Bank – involves the construction of 32 towers of 18 floors each in Hulhumalé. The two- and three-bedrooms units were to be leased under a rent-to-own model. Qualification under the previous government’s housing scheme required applicants to score at least 73 points or 76 points, respectively, during the evaluation process.

There were more than 20,600 applicants when former president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's government launched the scheme in June 2023, of whom 15,046 applicants were deemed eligible. 

Ahead of the September 2023 presidential election, the Solih administration assured housing for all eligible applicants. The recipients of the first 4,000 units were announced a month before the polls.

But after Solih’s defeat to Muizzu, the Anti-Corruption Commission halted the housing ministry’s efforts to hand over the apartments. The order came after more than 7,400 complaints were submitted to the online housing portal.

But on November 15, two days before the transfer of power, the outgoing government published a final list and commenced signing ownership agreements on the following day. The complaints had been dealt, the housing ministry insisted.

Upon assuming office on November 17, Muizzu halted the process and the anti-corruption watchdog launched a fresh investigation.

The ACC investigation found that 60 percent of applicants of the final list failed to meet the criteria and flagged problems with nearly 20 percent of applications that had been disqualified. Only 20.7 percent of the applicants were completely legitimate.

In the wake of the findings, the new housing minister deferred publication of a revised list pending legal advice.

On February 13, Housing Minister Ali Haidar told a parliamentary committee that the handover process to eligible applicants cleared by the ACC would begin "starting next week.” But the stand soon changed as the government decided to verify all 4,000 applications.

More than eight months later, Haidar said the verification process was continuing "without difficulties” and offered the end of the week as the new deadline. But on 28 October, only two days later, the government said more work was required and pushed back the announcement of the new list to November 2024.

Confronted by journalists about what he meant by "end of the week,” Haidar reiterated that the announcement will come as promised. "The end of the week is the day before the beginning of the week,” he explained.

But the announcement was postponed again two days later without any explanation.

In December, Haidar was moved to the higher education portfolio in a cabinet reshuffle. Infrastructure Minister Abdulla Muththalib’s mandate was expanded to include housing. Haidar’s old ministry was dissolved.

The new housing minister announced the start of a fresh evaluation process.

Briefing the press in January, Muththalib cited advice from the ACC and Auditor General as well as the need to investigate complaints from applicants as the reasons behind the decision.

Ibrahim Shiyaz, the vice president of the Malé Citizen's Association, shared the mayor’s concerns about the list.

"We can't accept a 'president's list' even if it is published and announced," he told the Maldives Independent.

Any attempt to reallocate the coveted housing units must follow due process with clear reasoning and compensation since there were 3,000 individuals who had received award letters from the previous government.

"We have also researched the 4000 housing unit list. We only noticed issues with about 800 of them," he said.

Meanwhile, now in opposition, the MDP has excoriated Muizzu over the apparent failure to fulfil his campaign promise to hand over the flats to the chosen recipients.

The Democrats, a minority opposition party, also questioned the Muizzu administration’s unending re-evaluation.

"Sitting in the Malé mayor's chair, President Muizzu advocated that the reevaluation work should be undertaken with the full participation of the city council in a transparent and fair process," Democrats Secretary General Ali Razzaan told the Maldives Independent.

The party urged the government to involve civil society organisations such as the Malé Citizen's Association or anti-corruption NGO Transparency Maldives.

"However, a list produced by unknown people sitting in complete secrecy in closed door meetings cannot not be accepted," Razzan said.

During his campaign, Muizzu and his then-opposition Progressive Congress Coalition had accused the MDP government of unfairly awarding housing to cronies and loyalists.

The Muizzu administration has since contended that awarding the flats would be unfair without a proper re-evaluation, alleging fraud by the previous administration to award flats to ineligible applicants.

"For example, a person who had been in a civil service job in an island for several years, has submitted documents to prove he lived and is living in Malé and has won housing,” Ahmed Zameer, a ruling party lawmaker who represents the South Machangolhi constituency in Malé, told the Maldives Independent.

“But it is clear from pension office records that he has been employed on [a different] island. How are we supposed to award without investigating this? Is that justice?"

The new list will be published by the end of February, Zameer assured.