Government promises to advance efforts in developing airport

The government has decided to consider the comments of the Anti Corruption Commission regarding its effort to find a developer for the Malé International Airport and advertise on a larger scale. Speaking at a press conference held at the President’s Office yesterday, the Minister for Civil Aviation and Communication Mohamed Jameel and the Minister of State for Finance Asad said that the previous efforts to find a suitable developer were not carried out with the intention of granting an unfair advantage to any party.

They argued that they had advertised so hastily because the airports’ current conditions demanded such urgency. He said that the government reserves did not have the funds for such a project and that it was doubtful that working with local parties would yield acceptable results in terms of sound management, finance and expertise. The Ministers revealed yesterday that the reason why the affair was conducted on such a small scale was because it was not intended to be carried out in the manner of a bid.

They said that they had meant to assess the proposals put forth by various parties and proceed with the best one. They claimed that they had made announcements on some local dailies and websites and received expressions of interest from five different parties. However, they were unable to respond to a query put forth by Miadhu, questioning how much international traffic those websites received. They concluded by saying that the project will be carried in line with the Anti Corruption Commission’s suggestions and stated that it was their belief that the commission could further improve the investigation of the matter.