Parliament tells gov to issue flats based on original recipient’s list

The Parliament on Monday voted in favor of instructing the government to issue flats awarded under the ‘Gendhoruveriya’ social housing scheme based on the list of recipients released in 2023, in the last days of the MDP administration, without any alterations.

The Parliament’s National Development and Heritage Committee had reviewed a petition submitted by members of the general public over the flats.

The Parliament, which the main opposition MDP holds a majority in, passed the committee’s report on the review with a unanimous vote of 29 on Monday afternoon.

The committee highlighted three main findings in the report:

• The delay in handover of flats
• Public concern over the delay, as well as the concern of people listed as recipients
• The promise made by the government to issue the flats to the recipients

The committee made two recommendations:

• To issue the flats based on the list of recipients published on the Gazette without any alterations, as promised by President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu
• To issue the flats based on the list as soon as possible

The ‘Gedhoruveriya’ scheme, and specifically the list of recipients of the first 4,000 flats under the scheme, was the subject of an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

The corruption watchdog found that 59.6 percent of the recipients were ineligible.

Faced with mounting public concern over the situation, the government said it would not take any action that would infringe on the right of a citizen.