Male' City Mayor Sifa Mohamed has stated the main challenge faced to Male' City Council is lack of income generating sources. Mayor Sifa made the statement at a meeting held with the Parliamentary Committee on Decentralisation.
Speaking at the committee meeting, Mayor Sifa said since authorities and powers of the councils were withheld for 7 years by the previous administrations, the councils have been dysfunctional. She highlighted the Local Government Authority (LGA), which is the governing body for councils, also withheld the rights of the councils. The mayor of the capital city noted the actions and decisions of the past administrations negatively impacted the functions of the councils, adding all councils were just establishments with no functional mandates.
Raising concerns to the parliament committee, Sifa said although authorities and powers of councils have been reverted by the current administration, several challenges are faced in providing services to the citizens. In this regard, she noted the mandates of Male' City Council overlap with the mandates of some government offices and further noted the budget incapacity as a challenge.
Furthermore, the mayor said the mandates of the councils can only be fully executed by minimising the dependency on the state budget and by establishing income generating sources to councils.