Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom's four children have paid back the amount owed to Rasheed Construction and Carpentry (RCC) after High Court dismissed the appeal filed at the court.
The Civil Court in 2017 ordered the four siblings to pay MVR 2.1 million to the construction company after they failed to pay the amount to RCC for work done on a property under their name.
It has been reported the full sum was paid on Monday.
The siblings refused to pay the sum until now as they did not believe that they are responsible for the payment, and appealed the Civil Court's decision at the High Court, which was dismissed sometime last week. The case was dismissed after attorney representing Ghassan Maumoon failed to show up at court for the hearing.
While Ghassan and his older brother, Faris Maumoon are set to contest in the parliamentary polls slated for April, their outstanding payment to RCC has raised questions whether they are eligible to contest in the election. In the case where a candidate has an outstanding payment ordered to be paid as per court sentence, and fails to oblige, the candidate cannot run for the parliament, according to the rules.
Yumna Maumoon, who is on the cabinet of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih had declared the outstanding debt in her financial statement submitted to the President's Office.
A building was constructed by RCC on a property in Chaandanee Magu of capital Male' under the name of the four siblings. The siblings refused to pay the billed amount to RCC, claiming that the standard of the building was not acceptable, with some works still incomplete.
However, the Civil Court sentence said RCC had completed the work and handed over the letter of completion to the owners. The progress was constantly monitored by the siblings during the construction process, noted the sentence. Therefore, questioning the quality of the building after RCC filed a lawsuit for failure of payment is not an acceptable reason to withhold RCC's payment, read the sentence.
