'Shocked' Abdul Raheem says Fenaka staff hiked from 2,000 to 8,000 in 5 years

Director General of Transition Abdul Raheem Abdulla has said that in his information-collection process for the transition, it was seen that Fenaka had fallen into a huge economic pit  and that the state-owned enterprise had tripled their number of employees.

In his interview with Sangu TV on Wednesday, Abdul Raheem said that the scenario he saw when he went to assess the situation of government companies during this transitional period was that they had fallen to a "very low level" both financially and operationally. Fenaka was identified as being in a very bad state, he said.

Going into details, Abdul Raheem said the number of employees of Fenaka has increased to more than 8,000. He described it as a surprise.

"When President [Abdulla] Yameen's government ended in 2018, I remember the entire [Fenaka] company had about 2,700 employees. However, now there are more than 8,000 employees now," he said.

At a time when Fenaka's debt has soared several times and small business owners are on the streets about not being paid their bills, opposition MPs on Wednesday also raised criticisms about the company's functioning in the Parliament.

Abdul Raheem also expressed his concerns on Sangu TV.

"There was a lot of talk [even during the campaign] that state-owned companies were on the verge of bankruptcy. In that sense, one of the most prominent companies is Fenaka," Abdul Raheem said.

"Fenaka is related to the entire country. [But] the company is so indebted because the company is used for a political purposes rather than to achieve its objective."

The number of employees has tripled and some have been hired without a chair to sit or work to do, he said.

"That's why I'm saying that if you use the company to achieve a political goal rather than to achieve its own objectives, the end result will exactly be what has happened to Fenaka. At a very low level, Fenaka is in a huge financial mess and deep in debt," said Abdul Raheem, who is also the chairperson of the PNC, which will become the main ruling party after a month.

"There are other companies too, that have reached a point where they are struggling to survive financially."

According to Abdul Raheem:

“All the companies are in a very bad position, both financially and operationally,” he said.

The details of the financial situation of the companies will be known after the work of the interim committees has concluded, he said. He said the works, which are scheduled to be completed by Friday, will be announced at a press conference.

It is noteworthy that 19 local contractors are suffering badly over denied payment due them from various works awarded by Fenaka last August. They say the outstanding amount is more than MVR 200 million. Some contractors have staged protests in front of the Fenaka office on several occasions to demand the money.

Fenaka's debt has exceeded MVR 2 billion. The company has recently taken out a loan of MVR 400 million from the Maldives Islamic Bank (MIB) to repay the debts.