It has been revealed that more than MVR 1 million was spent on overseas trips when President Mohamed Muizzu was the Mayor of Male'.
In the sixth episode of Rayyithunnaa Eku (With the People) podcast by the President's Office in May, Muizzu accused councils of using block grants to travel overseas for "personal pleasure."
"What happens now is that the block grant is used by councils to travel to Bangkok and other places by calling it exposure trips. The entire council together. What benefit does it bring to the people? That is not what the block grant is supposed to be used for," he said.
But a Right to Information (RTI) request by Dhauru news revealed that Muizzu travelled to five countries when he was mayor of the capital city.
According to the response from the city council, he made an eight-day visit to Turkey in 2021 using MVR 81,124.62 from the council budget.
The remaining overseas trips were made in 2022. He used MVR 273,268.10 on a six-day trip to Portugal, MVR 35,897.76 on a seven-day trip to South Korea, MVR 18,041 on a one-day trip to Sri Lanka and MVR 352,377.84 on a six-day trip to Singapore.
More than MVR 760,000 was spent from the council budget on Muizzu's trips as mayor. The amount rises to more than MVR 1 million, including four trips by some council members.
