Category:

Week in review: January 4 – 10

The law and order aims of the new administration took centre stage this week as the Home Minister Umar Naseer announced his desire to introduce mandatory government service for young people in order to produce a well-disciplined generation.

The Home Ministry also revealed that fifty prison inmates were to begin work on road construction on the industrial island of Thilafushi as part of efforts to improve reintegration.

With the same end in mind, the police announced its decision to expunge the criminal records of over 1000 young offenders, as the juvenile court revealed that only 6 young people had completed reintegration programmes the previous year.

In an interview with Minivan News, Umar Naseer described the desire to fight illegal drugs that had originally brought him into politics – and now into the cabinet. Naseer expressed his intention to relieve the pressure the drugs problem places on the criminal justice system.

This pressure on the system seemed set to rise this week as the Criminal Court said it would halt all existing cases following the Majlis’s failure to confirm a new prosecutor general. The Supreme Court, however, quickly stepped in to order the resumption of activity.

The government’s plans in the education sector also continued to take shape with the formation of the Council of Higher Education. The scholarship policy of the previous administration took a blow, however, as the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) ordered a review of the vetting processes for tertiary scholarships.

Additionally, the ACC revealed that laptops were given to immigration department staff as bribes to encourage cooperation with the later-terminated border control project.

Returning from his state visit to India, President Abdulla Yameen described bilateral ties as being as strong as they had been under the thirty-year leadership of his half-brother Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. The vice president lauded the visit as a panacea to all of the countries’ previous problems.

After Yameen had discussed the amicable settlement of the GMR dispute with the Indian Prime Minister, the Maldives Attorney General this week claimed that the Mohamed Nasheed administration had broken finance laws when guaranteeing loans to the infrastructure giant in 2011.

Nasheed himself rounded on the Yameen cabinet during campaigning for the approaching local council elections, criticising the president’s decision to split ministerial portfolios between different parties.

Earlier in the week, Yameen’s Progressive Coalition had launched its own local election campaign, calling upon voters to enable the government to fulfil its pledges by supporting its local candidates.

Meanwhile, in the first of a series of interviews with MPs ahead of March’s parliamentary poll, Maldivian Democratic Party MP Hamid Abdul Ghafoor told Minivan News that the Nasheed government’s decentralisation policy had been his proudest achievement.

The Elections Commission this week announced that all ten parties with less than 3,000 members would be dissolved.

Elsewhere, a leading member of the Fiqh academy – advisory council – this week publicly criticised the recently passed Sexual Offences Bill for partially criminalising marital rape.

The government’s passing of anti-trafficking legislation was commended by visiting officials from the US State Department, though a government source questioned the decision to move responsibility for implementation to the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

Finally, the bankrupt State Trading Organisation has announced plans to cut operational costs by MVR50 million in 2014 (US$ 3,242,542).

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Majlis will reconvene to discuss revenue raising measures

The People’s Majlis has agreed to return from recess on Tuesday (January 14) in order to discuss urgent amendments to tax and tourism legislation that will enable the government to raise vital revenue.

Local media has reported that the session will begin at 9am.

President Abdulla Yameen last week called upon the legislature to reassemble in order to facilitate the record MVR17.95 billion budget passed last month – of which MVR3 billion is reliant on new revenue raising measures.

“God willing, when the revenue related bills are passed next week the projects in atolls will speed up”, he said.

The measures include hiking Tourism GST from 8 percent to 12 percent, revising import duties, continuing tourism bed tax for one more year, raising airport departure charge for foreign passengers from US$18 to US$25, leasing 12 islands for resort development, introducing GST for telecommunication services, and obtaining resort lease payments as a lump sum.

Following the Majlis’s failure to extend tourism bed tax before the start of the current recess, Finance Minister Abdulla Jihad told local media that the resulting losses to state revenue would be MVR100 million a month.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Supreme Court orders Criminal Court to restart trials

The Supreme Court has ordered the Criminal Court to restart trials following the court’s decision to suspend all cases in the absence of a prosecutor general (PG).

In a statement today, the Supreme Court said it had told the Criminal Court that the criminal justice system must proceed in order to maintain constitutional rule.

The apex court ordered the Criminal Court to “continue with all ongoing cases without any obstruction, and continue issuing rulings such as that on [pre-trial] detentions as before.”

The Criminal Court had announced yesterday it will halt all ongoing cases as the PG’s position has been vacant for more than 30 days.

Former PG Ahmed Muizz had resigned from his position shortly before the parliament was set to debate a no confidence motion against him.

Speaking to Minivan News, deputy PG Hussein Shameem condemned the Criminal Court for its decision, alleging the court had not discussed the matter with him or the parliament.

Further, people held in pre-trial detention may have to stay in remand centers if cases do not go ahead, Shameem said.

“So what do they do now, it would not be fair to keep them in there until the parliament comes back to work from recess after three months and appoint a new PG,’’ Shameem said.

“That is one of my biggest concerns over this issue, it is a responsibility of the PG office to uphold constitutional rights of the people.’’

There were no laws stating that the deputy PG cannot fulfill the responsibilities of PG in the case of the position being vacant, Shameem added.

He argued that PG’s office’s work must not come to a halt because the parliament had failed to appoint a new PG.

On December 10, President Abdulla Yameen proposed his nephew Maumoon Hameed for the post of Prosecutor General and submitted the name to the parliament for the MPs to approve.

The issue was sent to parliament’s Independent Commissions Committee and the committee decided to seek public opinion on him before sending it to the parliament floor for voting.

However, the parliament is now on recess and will not start work until March.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Nexbis gave laptops as “bribes” in border control project: ACC

Malaysian security firm Nexbis offered laptops as “bribes” to the Department of Immigration and Emigration’s staff to proceed with a border control project, the Anti- Corruption Commission has said.

In a statement today, the ACC said Nexbis had given 14 inch Lenovo laptops to senior staff at the Department of Immigration on May 10, 2012 in order to “increase Immigration staff’s interest for the project, and to obtain their cooperation so that Nexbiz could proceed with the project.”

The government signed a concession with Nexbis in 2010 to install and operate a border control system. However, in 2011 the ACC ordered the government to terminate the contract claiming that then-Immigration Controller Ilyas Hussain Ibrahim and a Finance Ministry official had abused their authority for undue financial gain in awarding Nexbis the MVR500 million (US$39 million) project.

Nexbiz appealed the commission’s order at the Civil Court. While the Civil Court ruled the ACC did not have the authority to terminate the contract, the High Court later overturned the lower court’s ruling.

In August 2013, the government terminated the agreement citing unspecified “major losses” to the state and replaced the project with a Personal Identification Secure Comparison and Evaluation System (PISCES) provided by the US government. The parliament had also unanimously voted for termination of the contract in December 2012.

In September 2013, the Supreme Court upheld the Civil Court’s ruling declaring that the ACC did not have the legal authority to order the termination, noting the order was made after the agreement was signed.

Evidence

According to the ACC, the concession agreement does not list laptops under project deliverables. Although the concession agreement says Nexbis must provide mobile enforcement tools to enforcement officers, laptops are not included in these tools.

The steering committee in charge of the project told the ACC that the laptops were given in order to facilitate communication between the project’s stakeholders, to conduct border control training and to test the system.

However, the Immigration Department’s IT staff told the ACC that every immigration staff member had a desktop computer and that laptops were not necessary for the outlined tasks.

Evidence shows “the project’s steering committee accepted the laptops as a bribe to enable Nexbiz and gave laptops to other Immigration staff as a bribe,” the ACC said.

The commission has recommended the prosecutor general file bribery charges against the steering committee for accepting bribes and offering bribes to other staff.

The steering committee includes former Immigration Controller Ilyas Hussein Ibrahim, and staff members Abdulla Waheed, Ibrahim Ashraf, Saeed Mohamed, and Ali Saeed.

If found guilty, the five may be sentenced to five years in jail, banishment, or house arrest.

Likes(2)Dislikes(0)

DQP MP Riyaz Rasheed joins PPM

Dhivehi Qaumee Party’s (DQP) MP Riyaz Rasheed has joined the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), local media has reported.

Riyaz said he signed to the party in the presence of both President Abdulla Yameen and Vice President Mohamed Jameel Ahmed.

According to Riyaz he joined PPM because he had worked hard to bring the current government to power and that he could best serve the government by joining the party.

Riyaz denied his changing party having any connection to Elections Commission’s decision to dissolve the DQP.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

President calls on Majlis to expedite revenue raising measures

President Abdulla Yameen has said development projects can only be spoken of after the People’s Majlis passes revenue raising measures.

Yameen said  that in order to speed up the bills, a request for parliament sittings during this recess period had been submitted with signatures of twenty six members of parliament.

“God willing, when the revenue related bills are passed next week the projects in atolls will speed up,he said.

The Majlis in December passed a record MVR17.95 billion budget of which MVR3 billion is to be realised only after the parliament approves revisions to existing legislation.

The measures include hiking Tourism GST from 8 percent to 12 percent, revising import duties, continuing tourism bed tax for one more year, raising airport departure charge for foreign passengers from US$18 to US$25, leasing 12 islands for resort development, introducing GST for telecommunication services, and obtaining resort lease payments as a lump sum.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Police suspend Upper South Division Commander

The Maldives Police Service has suspended the Upper South Division Commander Inspector Ahmed Shiyam in connection to an ongoing investigation.

The police declined to reveal details of the investigation.

Shiyam was the police media spokesperson for a long period and was later promoted to commander.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Improving relations with Arab countries, a high priority in foreign policy: Yameen

Improving relations with Arab countries is a high priority of the government’s foreign policy, President Abdullah Yameen has said.

Speaking to the Ambassador of Iraq to the Maldives, Kahtan Taha Khalaf who made a courtesy call today, Yameen said that he will work towards improving bilateral relations with Iraq, and that it has been fourty three years since diplomatic relations with Iraq was established.

Taha congratulated Yameen on his being elected president.

Likes(1)Dislikes(0)

Anti-trafficking measures praised by US, whilst doubts persist within government

The US State Department has commended the Government of Maldives on the recent ratification of the Anti-trafficking Act, whilst a source within the government has questioned the administration’s initial moves in managing anti-trafficking policy.

Principal Deputy in the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Nan Kennelly, visited the country to consult with numerous stakeholders within both the government and civil society.

“Without a doubt passing a human trafficking act is a significant accomplishment and we have commended the government for that. It’s notable that it was done so early  in the new administration,” said Kennelly.

A source within the government, however, has today questioned the decision to move the human trafficking issue under the mandate of the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

“The Ministry of Youth does not play a significant part in dealing with foreigners and workers in this country. Ninety-five percent of the relevant work takes place within the immigration department,” explained the source.

“When trafficking happens, what are the functions of immigration in border control? Just making referrals to the Ministry of Youth? I wonder how that will work.”

The source explained that the transfer of responsibilities had occurred after the act came into force.

Recently confirmed Minister for Youth and Sports Mohamed Maleeh Jamal was not responding to calls at the time of press.

Principal Deputy Kennelly met with the attorney general, the acting prosecutor general, the immigration controller, the commissioner of police, and representatives from the Youth Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, and the Human Rights Commission.

From civil society, consultations were held with Transparency Maldives, and the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) – which is being funded by the US for its work in the Maldives.

The IOM has conducted training following the passage of the bill last month which included officials from both the Youth Ministry and the Immigration Department.

“The IOM has tremendous expertise,” explained Kennelly. “With IOM you know you are going to get quality training that’s reflecting the norms of the international community.”

Watchlist

The Office to Monitor and combat Trafficking is responsible for producing the US Government’s yearly trafficking report. The Maldives has appeared on the report’s Tier 2 watchlist for four consecutive years.

“The law that governs the trafficking and persons report which we produce every year requires that it a country is on the tier two watchlist  for four years  in a row they must either go up one grade, or they will be downgraded to tier three,” explained Kennelly.

Relegation to Tier 3 – reserved for those deemed not to have conformed to the department’s minimum standards or to not be making enough effort to do so – carries with it the potential for the withdrawal of non-humanitarian and non-trade related foreign assistance.

“That’s the situation in which is in for the 2014 report – I can’t really speculate on what the ranking will be in 2014 because there are many factors that we take into consideration.”

Asked if the passage of the trafficking bill constituted enough effort to save the Maldives from Tier 3, Kennelly state that she had yet to see an English copy of the act, but that the next report would consider many factors.

She did, however, describe the new legislation as a “very good basis for future action”.

Shortly after the act’s ratification, both the Human Rights Commission and the Department of Immigration expressed concern over its failure to adequately identify smuggling – a topic Kennelly discussed with the media yesterday.

“Human smuggling is a crime against the state because immigration laws are being broken, whereas human trafficking is a crime which takes place against the individual…their human rights to be free from forced labour are violated.”

All government stakeholders consulted during the visit, however, were very clear on the difference, she explained.

“Generally speaking I was impressed with the level of sophistication of understanding of the concept of human trafficking amongst government interlocutors.”

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)