FAM says not responsible for others' power use
FAM noted that the government was providing this assistance to all national sports associations except FAM.
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STELCO cut off power from the Football Association of Maldives' (FAM) administration building over the non-payment of MVR 6.5 million in utility bills on Sunday, but the country's football governing body has said the billed amount includes usage billed due to the negligence of STELCO as well as power used by others using the building.
STELCO suspended power supply from FAM House saying it had done so after having repeatedly asked FAM to pay the due MVR 6 million, and had given several opportunities to submit a repayment plan.
Terming it as an "irresponsible act", the FAM issued a statement Sunday evening, saying the power cut by STELCO was not of the “right intention".
According to FAM:
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The FAM House has been used by various parties; it is now being used to run the Scout Association's office after being used as a health facility in 2020 during Covid-19 pandemic.
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FAM should not be held responsible for costs such as electricity and water used by non-FAM personnel.
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Power for none of the floors already being used for government purposes at FAM House have been cut off; they have not paid the bills, so STELCO cutting off power from only the FAM office in the building does not seem like a reasonable act.
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In March FAM met with STELCO's current managing director Ahmed Shareef to resolve the issue; a plan was submitted to STELCO on how to resolve the issues in the billing and how the accruing amounts can be settled for the benefit of both parties.
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Since then, FAM has repeatedly appealed to STELCO to resolve the issue, but the power cut was cut off without any further discussion.
"After having admitted that MVR 1.9 million has been billed incorrectly till 2019 due to negligence on the part of STELCO, to date, the issue has not been resolved due to lack of cooperation from STELCO. FAM has not filed any legal charges against STELCO for this matter because we had hoped to resolve the matter through dialogue as STELCO itself had requested”, the statement read.
In addition, FAM pointed out that while the government takes care of the utility bills for various sports fields, FAM alone takes care of all the expenses of the Maafannu turf grounds. FAM noted that the government was providing this assistance to all national sports associations except FAM.
"This association would like to assure all respective authorities that they will have FAM’s full cooperation in providing details of events that occurred, and resolving this issue. While this association is deeply concerned about the irresponsible manner in which STELCO has acted, we are still ready to work with STELCO to resolve this issue," the statement said.
STELCO did say that it was considering cutting power supply from other FAM buildings if FAM failed to pay the dues.
FAM has been facing a lot of financial crises. The national team officials have not been paid their salaries for months now. There are also hurdles in paying the monthly salaries of FAM employees.
