Power has been restored to all island council outlets: Fenaka

After having cut power from several island council offices for pending electricity bills, Fenaka Corporation on Thursday announced that power has been restored to them.

The state-operated utility corporation’s Managing Director, Ahmed Shareef, said that power was restored after discussions with the Local Government Authority, the statutory body that oversees island councils,

The two organizations had agreed to have the bills paid, and as such the Local Government Authority is in talks with the Finance Ministry.

Shareef said that there some councils have left their bills pending for over year and are in debt to sums larger than MVR 80 million.

He further said that the Finance Ministry has thus far refused to release the sums to make the payments because councils had not followed the financial procedures set by the ministry.

Shareef stated that the Finance Ministry has been consistently providing funds to island councils that have abided by the procedures, which primarily includes sharing details of expenses over utilities such and water and electricity.

He even said that some island councils regularly misappropriate the funds provided to them by the ministry.

Power was cut from several council outlets shortly after the local council elections, held in May 6th. This included council outlets in Dhaandhoo of Gaafu Alifu atoll, and Kolhufushi in Meemu atoll.

The council members of Kolhufushi island said that they had received a bill for MVR 90,000, an accumulation of over six months of pending bills.