Akram hits back at ACC's 'political' allegations on flat scheme
Akram posted on 'X' on Wednesday evening, saying the ACC's allegations are politically boased.
By
Shahudha Mohamed
Former Minister of State for Housing Akram Kamaluddin has said that the Anti-Corruption Commission's (ACC) allegation that the points given to applicants for the Gedhoruveriya scheme have been changed and those who do not live in the capital are getting flats in the city are politically biased.
The ACC had twice asked the Housing Ministry to stop allocating flats for alleged wrongs made by the previous government.
The ACC Vice-President shared some of the findings of the commission's investigation with the Independent Institutions Committee of the Parliament on Wednesday. He said:
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The portal is designed to automatically generate marks according to the information submitted
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However, the investigation found that the marks generated automatically were later changed
"For example, the documents submitted are not eligible. If so the system will automatically generate ineligible. It appears that the form is manually changed to meet the eligibility criteria at the approval level", Salam said.
One of the requirements of the Gedhoruveriya scheme is to have lived in the Male area for 15 years. However, the ACC investigation has found that even those who do not live in Male have been made eligible.
Akram posted on 'X' on Wednesday evening, saying the ACC's allegations are politically ‘tinted’.
"You don't have to be employed in Male to qualify. Whatever job you have in an island or resort, if your wife and children live in Male, you will be eligible," Akram said.
"You can't meet the criteria by giving more points to a person who doesn't meet the criteria. The allegations levelled by the ACC are politically coloured, so to disclose other things without proper investigation is what i mean politically coloured."
He added that:
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There will be no system score or verification score in the portal; The system shows the option the applicant took
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The verifier will decide after checking the information provided in the form to ensure that the option was taken correctly
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If not correct, the verify option will be decided based on the form information
However, the public is criticizing Akram for what he said about the eligibility rules for the Gedhoruveriya scheme in his post.
Some people are also alleging that many people who are not entitled to the flats have been given the flats despite what Akram had tried to justify.
The housing ministry of the previous government had stayed the allotment of flats till further orders from the ACC, but had signed agreements to allot flats to 4,000 people who they claimed to have scored the highest marks out of the 13,000-odd people on the permanent list.
They are the people who will be given flats from the 4,000 housing units being built in Hulhumale by the previous government through the Fahi Dhiriulhun Corporation (FDC). A ministry official told Atoll Times at the time that agreements had been signed with a total of 4,000 beneficiaries, but there were complaints that some people who got marks for flats were not specified nor agreements were signed.
Following complaints to the ACC about the previous government's housing projects, the new government has decided to review the permanent list of flat recipients. The housing minister of this government has also said that the place where the land has been granted under the Binveriya scheme may be moved to another area in the same island where the land was granted.
