Male’ City Mayor Adam Azim has said the cost of holding public meetings has been significantly reduced through measures to cut expenditure.

Responding to reports that the council spent MVR 1.1 million on public meetings this year, Azim said MVR 2.05 million was spent on a public meeting in 2023.

He said MVR 567,839 was spent on the meeting held in February this year and MVR 585,137 on the meeting in July.

Azim criticised reports that presented the combined cost of the two meetings as the expenditure for a single meeting, and called for greater responsibility in reporting and sharing information.