Insincere Solih Administration Has Run a Debt of MVR 40 Billion in 2 Years, Nothing to Show for It: MP Saeed

MP Mohamed Saeed (Maavah) has said that the reason President Solih’s administration continues to blame the previous administration is evidence of the Solih administration’s lack of sincerity.

MP Saeed made the statement during a debate over a motion regarding developing a system to restrict the outflow of United States dollars from the Maldivian economy. MP Saeed accused the government of lacking integrity. That the government “can’t say anything beyond blaming the previous administration”.

MP Saeed highlighted that the Solih administration had incurred a debt of MVR 40 billion in the last two years. MP Saeed asked why such a debt had been incurred to begin with. The same people who had complained of the Yameen administration’s debts have managed to rack up a debt of MVR 40 billion, said MP Saeed, but they have no projects to show for it.

Referring to the Hiya Public Housing Scheme, MP Saeed said that although the housing units had been called “pigeon-coops” by officials the ruling party; the same officials did not see these flats as “pigeon-coops” when they assigned them to their friends and family-members.

In addition, said MP Saeed, the ruling party’s activists had complained that the MVR 700 million loan taken by the Yameen administration to build sewage systems in the islands was “too large” of a debt. However, accused MP Saeed, the same people had planned to take out a MVR 1 billion loan to build such systems for 20 islands. All of this, he said, showed the government’s lack of sincerity.

MP Saeed also referenced the current ruling party’s concerns about the USD$ 200 million loan taken to build the Malé-Hulhumalé Bridge. He said that the same party has now planned to take out a USD $500 million loan for the Gulhee Falhu bridge project. He said that according to the projections made by the previous government, this would be twice the necessary cost of such a bridge.