Male’ City Council to retake parking slot draws

Male’ City Council has decided to re-take the draws for the 211 parking slots opened for four-wheelers in Male’ City.

A total of 965 people applied for the slots distributed over 10 areas in the island. However, after the initial draw, accusations of corruption surfaced and the case has even been submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

Speaking to ‘Sun’ Mayor of Male’ City Dr. Mohamed Muizzu admitted that there were issues with the parking slot draw.

“We have already finalized the decision to retake the draws because we also accept that there were issues.”

He said both the council and ACC had flagged administrative issues. However, Dr. Muizzu noted that ACC did not indicate corruption being a part of it.

“ACC did not mention any corruption, they (ACC) have sent a letter. So they requested to retake the draw after resolving the indicated issues,” said the mayor.

Detailing some of the issues found Dr Muizzu stated that some individuals who currently own and regularly pay for parking slots were also included in the draw.

Additionally, he said that the slips that were first issued did not have the slip number mentioned, but after the form was accepted by the city council the slip number was noted in the account books.

One of the biggest concerns raised following the draw was the missing slip number on the slips issued.

“The missing slip numbers is a big administrative flaw. In order to resolve it, what we really need to do is first release the list. The full list. That list will have all the slip numbers. But we released the full list along with the list of those who were selected,” said Dr Muizzu.

Furthermore, he noted that it was important to livestream the draw and do it in front of those who applied for the slots. He assured that the aforementioned issues will not repeat in the coming draw.