President dissolves Settlement Committee

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu, on Tuesday, dissolved the Settlement Committee, established by former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s administration to review and provide compensation over cancelled government contracts.

In a statement announcing the decision, President’s Office said the monetary compensation payments ordered by the committee up until President Muizzu took office on November 17 amounted to over MVR 225 million.

Sharing the announcement on X, President Muizzu said he found “illicit compensation payments using taxpayer money unacceptable.”

The President’s Office said that in addition to the monetary compensation, the value of assets, islands and lagoons the committee decided on as compensation is estimated to amount to over MVR 1 billion.

These decisions were also made in violation of the legal counsel provided by the Attorney General, said the President’s Office.

AG Ahmed Usham has stated that he found the regulation based on which the previous administration gave compensation was illegal, and that compensation payments made in the name of settling the disputes was made without any input from the Attorney General’s Office.

Usham said that five legal disputes were settled without any consideration of the counsel from the AGO in the cases.

Records released by the Finance Ministry show the previous administration paid over MVR 1.6 billion in compensation to various companies.