128 million outstanding to education contractors: Minister

Education Minister Dr Ismail Shafeeu has said that MVR 128 million was not paid to contractors of the school projects when the government changed.

Minister Shafeeu  said this in response to a question by Inguraidhoo Constituency PNC Member Hassan Ahmed regarding the incomplete projects started in schools in his constituency.

In a summative answer to the question, Shafeeu said that when this government came to power, there were about 107 ongoing projects under the responsibility of the ministry. However, the projects were stopped because the contractors were not getting paid, he said.

"That's about projects worth MVR 128 million. So, we gave top priority to start the stalled projects as soon as possible. About 90 million of the MVR 128 million has been paid for the pending bills," Shafeeu said.

Many members questioned the minister on Tuesday about the pending projects on construction of multipurpose halls and classrooms in island schools. The minister said the budget was allocated less than the amount required to complete many projects.

“For example, for a project worth MVR 12 million, the budget has an allocation of a hundred thousand, or two or three hundred thousand Rufiyaa”. 

Explaining the difficulties behind the government run PSIP projects in schools, the education minister asked the parliament to think twice when formulating the budget.