Housing Minister Aminath Athifa has revealed that the Attorney General's Office (AG) has instructed the ministry to halt the housing project being implemented in Lhaviyani Atoll, Naifaru.
In response to a question posed by the parliament's National Development and Heritage Committee on Monday, Minister Athifa said that they received a letter from the AG office on Sunday which stated that the project cannot be pursued at the time being. The letter further instructed them to reopen the project for bidding.
The project to establish 100 housing units in Naifaru was included in the Public Sector Investment Program (PSIP). The project is a presidential pledge of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.
Expressing her concern on the delay, Minister Athifa stated that the government wishes to complete projects such as these at the earliest. However, the projects are impeded and cannot move forward due to obstructions such as the instructions given by the AG Office.
"We received a letter from the AG Office today stating that the Naifaru housing project cannot be pursued at this time. The project is a pledge included in the PSIP for 2019. The letter outlined several lengthy points and instructed us to reopen the project for bidding", Minister Athifa said.
The Minister further said that she takes personal responsibility for the delay in completing important projects that are part of presidential pledges. She added that she will see that the pledges are fulfilled even if it meant restarting efforts all over again.
