Category:

Nasheed pays an official visit to newly elected Sri Lankan President and Prime Minister

President Mohamed Nasheed has paid an official visit to the newly elected Sri Lankan President Sirisena Maithiripala.

At the meeting held in the President’s Office in Colombo this morning, Nasheed congratulated Sirisena on his electoral victory and the Sri Lankan people for the peaceful transition of power.

Nasheed was accompanied by opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) chairperson Ali Waheed, former Majlis Speaker Abdulla Shahid, former foreign minister Ahmed Naseem, and former health minister Dr Aminath Jameel.

President Nasheed also met with newly elected Prime Minister Ranil Wikramasinghe this afternoon.

Before departing to Sri Lanka earlier this week, Nasheed noted that the newly elected ruling United National Party (UNP) is a sister party to the MDP through the International Democratic Union, adding that was a privilege that a like-minded party is ruling in “our closest neighbor”.

He also expressed confidence in positive assistance and aid from Sri Lanka to the Maldives in general terms, and particularly with regards to consolidating democracy.

Likes(1)Dislikes(0)

British Airways stops summer flights to the Maldives

British Airways (BA) has decided to suspend summer flights to the Maldives, as well as cancelling flights to Colombo, Sri Lanka, the Telegraph reports.

“British Airways will continue flying between London Gatwick and Malé. However, the service will be operational only during the winter… to cater to the high leisure travel demand.” a BA spokesman is reported to have said.

The airline has assured all customers affected that a full refund will be issued and has apologised for any inconvenience caused as a result of the changes in flight schedules.

BA began three scheduled flights between Ibrahim Nasir International Airport ( (INIA) and Gatwick London Airport in 2009.

Meanwhile, airport officials last week announced that German airline Lufthansa is to start scheduled flights to INIA from next December, while the national carrier Maldivian airlines’ new A321 is due to arrive in the country next week.

Source: Telegraph

Likes(1)Dislikes(0)

Government announces completion of all tsunami housing units

The government has announced the completion of all housing units constructed by the state for people made homeless in the 2004 tsunami disaster.

In a joint press conference held today by the housing and finance ministries, Minister for Housing and Infrastructure Dr Mohamed Muizzu declared that 298 housing units in four islands in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, and 41 housing units in Thaa Madifushi have now been completed.

Muizzu stated that the government had taken direct control of the project last November on the decision of President Abdulla Yameen following numerous attempts to negotiate with the contractors regarding the delays in work.

On the ninth anniversary of the disaster in December 2013, Yameen had pledged to complete permanent housing for all the 427 families who remained homeless.

Muizzu did not reveal whether new private contractors had been brought in to complete the unfinished work, saying only that there would be no “legal problems in any of the work the government has directly been involved in”.

He also stated that the government took over the project after seeking legal advice from the attorney general and noted that the Anti Corruption Commission and the auditor general were invited to review the proceedings.

Finance minister Abdulla Jihad stated that Vimla Construction Pvt Ltd was awarded a US$20 million contract in October 2008 to build the housing units in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll for completion within 14 months. Jihad said that approximately US$16.6 million had been spent up to now.

He also noted that the delays and the need for the government to become directly involved in the completion of the housing units meant the projects were likely to cost more than expected, although the full amount has not yet been determined.

“STO has supplied substantial amounts, we estimate that the value (of supplies by STO) will be a significant sum,” Jihad said.

The finance ministry’s audit report of 2011 revealed that it had spent MVR17.5 million to transport materials for the construction of the tsunami housing units in Gaafu Dhaalu. The audit report noted that the expenses, which were not included in the finance ministry’s budget, should not have been paid.

Further, the audit report also recommended a specific audit be done and a report published on the tsunami housing units contracted to Vimla Construction.

The 2004 tsunami resulted in 82 deaths and 26 missing persons in the Maldives. Figures from the UN show that the disaster displaced nearly 10 percent of the Maldives’ population, severely damaging a quarter of inhabited islands with 14 completely evacuated.


Related to this story

Tsunami survivors still without permanent housing

Foreign Minister calls for greater resilience to climate change impacts

Likes(3)Dislikes(0)

LGA board vote to remove Chairperson Nazim

The Local Government Authority has voted to remove Chairperson Colonel (retired) Mohamed Nazim and Vice President Moosa Naseer.

Five of the nine board members supported a no-confidence motion against Nazim, who is also minister of defence and acting health minister.

The five board members took the vote after having refused to leave today’s board meeting following Nazim’s failure to table a no-confidence motion against himself.

“We can conduct the meeting without the board president being there,” explained member Shujau Hassan. “It is allowed for in our rules of procedure.”

Malé City Councillor and LGA board member Shamau Shareef explained that Nazim had insisted the agenda for yesterday’s cancelled meeting be attended to before any other issues were addressed.

Shamau noted that Nazim had prevented the board taking a no-confidence vote against him in December. He had previously explained to Minivan News that a binding resolution to do so had been signed by four members on December 24.

He stated today that five board members, including himself and Hussain Naseer, Hussain Hilmy, Ibrahim Rasheed, and Shujau Hassan refused to adjourn the meeting, requesting LGA officials write to the attorney general for advice.

Shamau expressed concern that Nazim was not working to protect local government in the country while “the government is dismantling the whole system of decentralisation”.

Both Nazim – appointed to the board by President Abdulla Yameen, and Moosa Naseer will continue to hold positions on the LGA board. Nazim referred any media queries to LGA’s media coordinator Mohamed Azmeen.

Azmeen said that today’s meeting had been halted after disagreements between the chair and members over the agenda. He had confirmed that the board was to decide on how to proceed with the issue after the attorney general’s advice, but was not responding to calls following the board’s subsequent dismissal of Nazim this afternoon.

Formed under the 2010 Decentralisation Act, the LGA is tasked with overseeing and coordinating the work of the Maldives’ 199 city, atoll, and island-level councils.

The LGA board is required under the act with ensuring that “the work and activities of the councils created under this Act is functioning in accordance with the Constitution, this Act, and other Laws”.

The original Decentralisation Act assigns a number of services and lands to the councils, though failure to make amendments to relevant legislation – particularly the Land Act and the Finance Act – has led to contradiction in the current laws.

Concerns over the government’s plans for decentralisation prompted councils from the country’s southernmost atolls to sign a pact to defend the system last month.

The Medheaari Declaration – signed by the Gaaf Dhaalu, Gaaf Alifu, and Fuvahmulah atoll councils, and Addu City Council – called upon the government to protect decentralisation, as well as making plans to secure the fiscal autonomy of the signatories.

This article was updated shortly after its original publication to include the board’s decision to pass the no-confidence motion against Chairperson Nazim.


Related to this story

Defence minister Nazim faces no-confidence motion from LGA board

Southern atolls sign pact to defend decentralisation

Can decentralisation take root in the Maldives?

Likes(2)Dislikes(0)

Australian Commissioner notes challenges facing police in emerging democracies

Commissioner of Police for Western Australia Karl O’Callaghan delivered a lecture to police officers this morning on the challenges facing police forces in emerging democracies.

O’Callaghan – who oversees a force of more than 5,800 officers – explained that the growth of democracy meant the need for greater accountability and openness within the police force.

“As democracy emerges, the media will become more interested in what you do – the media will want to ask more questions about what you do,” he noted.

“That can be really challenging, and it’s still challenging for me after ten years as commissioner in Western Australia.”

“What we see in the Maldives is still changes of instability, so governments have changed quite a bit in the last ten years and that has an impact on your executive and your command.”

Mutinying police officers were involved in the overthrow of the Maldivian Democratic Party government in February 2012, later being found by the Human Rights Commission of Maldives (HRCM) to have used “excessive” and “discriminatory” force in a “brutal” crackdown against MDP supporters.

A subsequent Commonwealth-led inquiry into events called for investigation of acts of police brutality as well as recommending “immediate steps” to improve the performance of a number of state institutions, including the police and the HRCM.

Attorney General Mohamed Anil told the Majlis last August that five cases concerning police brutality on February 8 were ongoing, after the Police Intergrity Commission had recommended 45 officers be investigated.

Western Australia’s police force has been working with Maldivian authorities since 2006, assisting with the transition of the National Security Services into the Maldives Police Services and the Maldives National Defence Force.

Commissioner of Police Hussain Waheed has also thanked O’Callaghan during his visit for the help of the Western Australia police, as well as giving details of his owe force’s community outreach work.

Scholarship opportunities were launched by the University of Western Sydney (UWS) last year promising Maldivian police officers three-year doctoral research courses to increase the capacity of the Maldivian police.

“In the beginning it’s hard as, under the old system there was less scrutiny, less accountability, under the new system there will be much more but you’ll get used to it cos you’ll get better at what you do,” O’Callaghan told officers today.

Resource constraints also put pressure on police forces to improve efficiency, he noted, requiring feedback from officers on the ground to improve the service. Moreover, greater performance will result in improved relations with the public and government.

“A democratic police force is impartial but is compassionate,” O’Callaghan told the hundreds of officers in attendance, stressing the importance of the words of Robert Peel – the British reformer credited with creating the modern police force: ‘Police are the people and people are the police’.


Related to this story

Police not only solving crimes, but developing responsible youth: Commissioner Waheed

Comment: The Maldives Police Service – politicised or incompetent?

No coup, no duress, no mutiny: CNI report

Likes(2)Dislikes(0)

New HIV prevention strategy to target injecting drug users, gay men, sex workers

The Health Protection Agency’s (HPA) new national strategy on HIV prevention will scale up prevention programmes in key affected populations of injecting drug users, sex workers, men who have sex with men.

By 2016, the HPA aims to reach at least 60 percent of injecting drug users to promote the safe use of injecting equipment and consistent condom use with sexual partners.

The HPA aims to reach 80 percent of sex workers and men who are having sex with men to promote the consistent use of condoms.

The health ministry has previously said the Maldives was sitting on an HIV “time bomb” due to the lack of prevention programmes and specialised care for groups at risk.

The HPA has previously expressed concern over the prevalence of behaviors that increase risk of HIV spread such as promiscuity, unsafe sex and intravenous drug use.

There are nine individuals receiving treatment for HIV at present. The HPA estimates there are 32 individuals living with HIV in the Maldives. The figure could reach 123 by 2020 if prevention measures are not put in place, the agency said today.

Meanwhile, the Society for Health Education (SHE) has called for the integration of sexual reproductive health services and HIV prevention efforts.

“Integrating sexual reproductive and HIV prevention has the potential to stem an HIV pandemic. When vulnerable groups have increased access to and use sexual reproductive health services, it decreases the spread of HIV,” Shiyama Anwar of SHE said.

“Integration of these services provides a more comprehensive service that benefits both the clients and service providers,” she added.

According to the HPA, it currently only receives 15 percent of requested funds for HIV prevention, care, and treatment. The majority of the funds released from state budget are spent on treatment of infected individuals rather than on prevention.

The agency has called on the government to scale up sexual reproductive services and HIV prevention programmes, arguing interventions such as life skill programs for youth would only cost MVR350 per person while the state spends over MVR50,000 on each individual infected with HIV.

In the period between 2006 and 2013, 161 female victims of rape, which included underage girls became pregnant, HPA figures explain. The state spends MVR 174,000 on each child every year under state care. In comparison, providing quality contraceptives only costs MVR 1000 per person annually.

Meanwhile, the state spends MVR 22,900 per month on every individual receiving state care at drug rehabilitation centers. However, methadone or oral substitution treatment would only cost MVR14,400 and comprehensive awareness programmes would only cost MVR 800 per child, says the agency.

The HPA has called on the People’s Majlis to integrate services on HIV prevention, sexual reproductive health, and drug abuse, and grant service providers with adequate financial resources.


Related to this story

Health Ministry seeks to protect mothers and infants from HIV “time bomb”

“Worst fears over HIV coming true”: Health Minister

High-risk behaviour leaves Maldives at risk of HIV/AIDS “explosion”

Likes(2)Dislikes(0)

Guest house inspector scheme launched

The Ministry of Tourism has today commenced a programme to train guest house inspectors.

The workshop was held at the National Centre for the Information Technology (NCIT), with 20 participants from 17 islands taking part as the first batch of inspectors to be trained under the scheme.

Deputy Minister of Tourism Hussain Lirar told Minivan News that the participants – selected from names forwarded by island councils – will assist the ministry’s inspectors in ensuring that guest houses maintain professional standards after the initial licenses are granted.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the workshop, the tourism ministry’s Director General Aishath Ali stressed the importance of maintaining standards in the country’s guest houses, reported Haveeru.

Ali said it was important to ensure that all visitors and guests left the Maldives with the intention of returning.

After having just 22 registered guest houses in 2009, over 200 guest houses are now registered with the tourism ministry – with a capacity of over 2,000 beds.

According to the Maldives Monetary Authority, quarter three of 2014 saw the average operational bed capacity increase by 4 percent when compared to the same period in 2013.

Likes(1)Dislikes(0)

Seminar on new Penal Code commences at Nasandhura Palace Hotel

A two-day seminar to create awareness in the legal community of the new penal code – to be implemented in April of this year – has commenced at Nasandhura Palace hotel Haveeru reports.

The programme, conducted with the assistance of the Commonwealth, will hear lectures from the Commonwealth secretariat’s legal and constitutional affair division’s legal advisor Mark Guthrie, Australian Chief Magistrate Ray Renaud, and UK judge Shameen Quraishee.

Speaking at the ceremony today, Supreme Court Justice Abdulla Didi expressed his joy over the introduction of the new penal code which he described to be a progressive step for the development of the Maldivian criminal justice system. The code was approved in the Majlis last year, four years after first being introduced.

Further, Justice Abdulla Didi thanked the Commonwealth for its continued efforts to aid the development of the Maldivian judiciary, assuring that the Maldivian legal system will maintain a close relationship with the organisation.

According to Haveeru, Maldivian court officials, magistrates, and judges along with other members of the legal community will attend the seminar.

Source: Haveeru

Likes(1)Dislikes(0)

Imports up by 22 percent in 2014, exports down by 12 percent

Imports rose by 22 percent in 2014, while exports dropped by 12 percent, the Maldives Customs Service has revealed.

According to a statement from customs today, imported goods in 2014 amounted to MVR30.7 billion (US$1.99 billion), resulting in duties of MVR1.96 billion – a 15 percent rise compared to 2013.

The decline in exports saw the total value of goods leaving the Maldives in 2014 valued at MVR2.24 billion, compared with MVR2.56 billion in 2013.

The latest balance of payments figures from the Maldives Monetary Authority show the current account deficit was US$290 million in 2014 – equivalent to 10 percent of GDP, though the central bank estimates that this will drop to 6 percent of GDP in 2015.

Recent amendments to the Import Export Act – part of a raft of revenue raising measures – are expected to raise MVR533 million (US$34.5 million) in additional income in 2015.

Customs revealed today that petroleum products had contributed the most to last year’s imports, totaling MVR8.3 billion – or 27 percent of the total. Food items comprised 19 percent of the year’s imports while 16 percent was machinery and electronic items, totalling to MVR6 billion and MVR4.8 billion respectively.

The customs third quarterly review for 2014 suggested that the rise in machinery and electronics was largely responsible for the period being the most costly in terms of imports in the past five years.

It was also noted that 65 percent of the goods imported during quarter were sourced the UAE, Singapore, Malaysia, India, and Sri Lanka. These countries made up 62 percent of total imports in 2013.

The export of tuna products to Thailand dominates the Maldives’ exports – constituting 44 percent in the quarter, having received 37 percent of exports in 2013.

An IMF delegation to the Maldives late last year noted that, though the economy is “relatively buoyant”, the widening fiscal deficit as a result of high public expenditure and debt needed to be addressed.

Revisions to estimates of the current account deficit had indicated greater stability in the economy than previously thought, explained the IMF. Previous MMA estimates of the 2014 trade gap suggested it could equal 22 percent of GDP.

During the IMF’s last visit to the country in February this year, the delegation expressed surprise at the resilience of the economy, admitting that it was still studying how the domestic economy has remained afloat in the face of soaring public debt and persistent budget deficits.


Related to this story

Parliament approves import duty hikes

Maldives economy “relatively buoyant” but fiscal imbalances continue to grow: IMF

Majority of dollar receipts spent on imports: MMA assistant governor

Likes(2)Dislikes(0)