JJ Robinson – Page 32 – Minivan News

MNDF marks Children’s Day

The Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) conducted equipment demonstrations and allowed children to handle firearms during an event on Saturday to mark Children’s Day.

MNDF Spokesperson Major Abdul Raheem said the National Library requested the MNDF set up a stall as part of the day’s events, “so we demonstrated our equipment, and people took photos with it.”

Some of those photos – of toddlers handling heavy machine guns and staring down the barrels of pistols – were met with concern by Maldivians on social media channels, who described the images as “just not right”, and “sick and wrong”. One Maldivian twitter user questioned whether the event was part of the new government’s civic education syllabus.

In response to concerns, Major Abdul Raheem emphasised that the event was “very safe”.

“When we took the weapons outside we did not take any ammunition,” he explained. “The weapons were technically disabled.”

There was no possibility of even an unloaded weapon falling into the hands of a member of the public, he said.

Mariya Ali, former Deputy Minister of Health and Family with a 20 year background in child welfare in the Maldives, questioned the objective of the exercise.

“These children have witnessed violence from the [police and army], and now they are being exposed to the tools of violence. If it is not explained correctly, it can have a longstanding effect on them,” she said. “It is not appropriate for children under the age of eight to be exposed to this.”

Mariya said research into how children perceived authority figures such as the police showed that “Children see them as protectors – in their minds they separate the act of protecting – violence – from the protective side.”

“It would have been better to focus on the protective side, rather than the guns – things like fire safety, and cleaning up after accidents,” she suggested. “Children look up to them, they are important role models.”

UNICEF Resident Representative to the Maldives Zeba Tanvir Bukhari said the organisation was “quite taken aback” and said she hoped the MNDF would consult it when organising future events.

“It’s really very worrying. Children are very fragile at that age – the focus needs to be on care, affection, education and health. There is a huge risk of influencing children,” she said.

Images courtesy Jaawid Naseem/Jade Photography. Republished with permission.

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High Court issues injunction halting Nexbis project pending outcome of ACC appeal

The High court has issued an injunction temporarily halting the roll out of the Nexbis border control system, pending the outcome of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC’s) appeal against a Civil Court ruling that the ACC did not have the authority to halt the project.

The ACC in a hearing last week had requested an injunction, however Judge Azmirelda Zahir stated that such a decision could only be taken after both sides had presented their cases. The ACC had expressed concern that the project could be completed before the conclusion of the High Court case.

Immigration Controller Ilyas Hussain Ibrahim said he would not comment on the matter and referred Minivan News to Deputy Contoller Ibrahim Ashraf, who was not responding at time of press.

The case was delayed last week after the High Court ruled that Deputy Solicitor General Ahmed Usham could not represent the state in the case, as he had been a member of the tender evaluation board that had awarded the contract to Nexbis.

The case concerns a 20-year Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) agreement with the Malaysia-based mobile security solutions provider to upgrade border security in the Maldives with new technology including facial recognition and fingerprint identification, facilitating the identification and tracking of expatriate workers and eliminating the opportunity for people to enter the country with forged paper documents.

The ACC had earlier ordered a halt to the project following the signing of the contract in October 2010, announcing that it had received “a serious complaint” regarding “technical details” of the bid, and that the agreement presented “instances and opportunities” for corruption.

In December 2011, the Commission forwarded corruption cases against former – and now reappointed – Controller Ilyas Hussain Ibrahim, and Director General of the Finance Ministry, Saamee Ageel, to the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG), alleging that the pair had abused their authority for undue financial gain in granting the contract to Nexbis.

On February 16 Illyas confirmed that the department would proceed with the border control project as there was no “legal obstruction”. He disputed the claims of corruption and insisted that the project was awarded to Nexbis through a transparent international bidding process.

The agreement stipulates that Nexbis will levy a fee of Rf30 (US$2) from arriving and departing passengers in exchange for installing, maintaining and upgrading its immigration system. The company would also charge a Rf231 (US$15) for every work permit card.

Former Immigration Controller Abdulla Shahid has contended that this would deprive the Maldives of US$200 million in revenue over the life of the 20 year contract. Comparing Nexbis’ earnings to the government’s estimated revenue of US$10 million, Shahid proposed the government instead maximize its income by operating a system given by a donor country: “Border control is not something we are unable to comprehend,” he suggested.

Minivan News reported on February 16 that Nexbis had filed a case in the Civil Court seeking Rf 669 million (US$43 million) in damages from Shahid, alleging that its reputation had been tarnished by negative media coverage.

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GMR offers to exempt Maldivian nationals from airport development charge

GMR has offered to exempt Maldivian nationals from paying the contentious Airport Development Charge (ADC), in a bid to end a legal and contractual stalemate that threatens to bankrupt the Maldives Airport Company Limited (MACL) and deprive the government of the majority of all airport revenue.

The Indian infrastructure giant signed a 25 year concession agreement with former President Mohamed Nasheed’s government to upgrade and manage Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA). Under the concession agreement, a US$25 charge was to be levied on all outgoing passengers to part-fund the US$400 million upgrade.

However while in opposition the Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP), led by Dr Hassan Saeed, now President Dr Mohamed Waheed’s special advisor, filed a successful case in the Civil Court in December 2011 to block the payment of the charge, on the grounds that it was effectively a tax not approved by parliament.

Nasheed’s government had agreed to deduct the ADC from the concession fees payable by GMR while it sought to appeal to verdict. As a result, Dr Waheed’s government received only US$525,355 from the airport for the quarter, compared to the US$8.7 million it was expecting.

In a statement today, GMR said the government had “expressed a desire to exempt Maldivian citizens from the ADC”, as “the majority of Maldivians travel abroad for the purposes for healthcare and education.”

“The ADC was conceptualised and incorporated into the concession agreement by the government to yield a maximum return to the Maldives while ensuring development of the airport and a reasonable return to the successful bidder,” GMR stated.

“We are sensitive to the apprehensions expressed regarding ADC; and would like to assure all concerned that the management of GMR Male International Airport is doing everything possible by offering viable options to reduce the impact on the Maldivians, thereby helping the government for the ADC implementation.”

GMR presented the government with two options:

Option 1: No Maldivian passport holder will have to pay ADC. Every departing foreign passenger will pay an ADC of US$28.00; or
Option 2: Maldivians travelling to SAARC countries will not have to pay any ADC. Every Maldivian Passport holder departing to countries other than SAARC and every foreign passenger will pay an ADC of US$27.00.

No fee would be charged to either Maldivians or foreigners using the domestic terminal, the company noted.

In the statement, GMR noted that the government received US$33 million in 2011 from airport concession fees, “three times the money the government ever made in a year [from the airport] before privatisation.”

Following construction of the new terminal in 2015 – including “a state-of-the-art 600,000 square foot integrated Passenger Terminal and a 20,000 square foot VIP terminal, and various other airside and landside developments,” expected revenue from the airport to the government was expected to reach US$50 million per year, GMR observed, and almost US$100 million from 2021 as passenger numbers increased.

“In effect, GMIAL’s contribution to the government would be over US$2 billion over the concession period of 25 years, which will make a very significant contribution to the economy of the Maldives.”

President’s Office Spokesperson Abbas Adil Riza said the government had not yet officially received details of the offer, but said that such an offer would be evaluated by the Attorney General’s office “to see whether it is in line with the Financial Regulation Act.”

Attorney General Azima Shakoor was yesterday reported as expressing concern that settling the issue would be “quite difficult”, but vowed that “the government would settle the issue for the benefit of the country.”

On May 2 President Dr Mohamed Waheed told media at the inauguration of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO): “I do not believe [the ADC] can be charged in the current situation because of the court’s decision.”

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Government to consult tourism industry on potential T-GST increase

The government will hold a consultation with the tourism industry this week to test its appetite for an increase in the Tourism-GST (TGST), Tourism Minister Ahmed Adheeb has said.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the Maldives to increase the T-GST from six percent to 12 percent, among several measures the organisation says are urgently needed to offset the Maldives’ spiraling budget deficit, and avoid miring the country in poverty.

Parliament’s Finance Committee last week calculated that the budget deficit would reach 27 percent of GDP, on the back of plunging revenues and a 24 percent increase in government expenditure.

Adheeb told Minivan News that the government would present the IMF’s report to the industry, and discuss how to proceed: “We have to be realistic,” he said.

“The IMF has recommended an increase to 12 percent – we need to discuss what kind of increase the industry would like to see over the next five years,” he said.

Adheeb emphasised the need for stability rather than sporadic increases in the tax, cautioning against a sudden change in the T-GST which would affect those tour operators who make pricing agreements and publish brochures up to a year in advance.

However, Secretary General of the Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI), Mohamed Ibrahim ‘Sim’, warned that the tourism industry was already under pressure from a decline in traditional markets.

“Is there an appetite [to increase the TGST]? No, not really. The European economy is not doing well and we would like the costs to remain the same – GST is something we have to pass to the customer. We need to maintain it, at least for the moment,” Ibrahim said.

One resort manager told Minivan News on condition of anonymity that such an increase would have “serious ramifications on many of the markets.”

“Some operators will not accept the increase mid-contract and hence resorts will have to absorb this from revenue,” he explained. “The additional costs will need to be balanced somewhere in the operation and you will find resorts have to [reduce] some of the nice touches for guests, [cut] staffing levels etcetera in order to deal with these ever growing expenses.”

The manager expressed exasperation that resorts were being asked to shoulder the burden without a parallel commitment from the government to reduce expenditure.

“We have seen an increase in some public services salaries and a reduction on working hours in many government departments who are meant to serve the resorts. Many of these government departments make it difficult for the resorts to do their jobs, with bureaucracy and rules to keep extra people in a job rather than making it easier to support the resorts in order to do their job: build more business, increase revenue and hence increase GST [revenue] in a positive manner. An increase in GST right now is the wrong solution.”

The government “needs to take a more supportive approach to the resorts”, he suggested, “whether it be processing visas, expediting customs waits or speeding up the immigration process for guest at the airport. A serious revision of the various government departments is required.”

According to figures from the Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA), the T-GST brought in 32.4 percent of all government revenue in April.

Total revenue collected in April was Rf2.5 billion (US$162.1 million) – almost double that collected in April last year – however MIRA’s figures do not take into account the substantial revenues lost from the phasing out of import duties, previously the Maldives’ main source of tax revenue.

Former government to blame?

Adheeb blamed the need for the increase on the former government’s changes to the calculation of land lease rents, which he claimed were responsible for an Rf540 million (US$35 million) shortfall overall after the new taxes were introduced.

MATI’s Ibrahim however contended that the changes to the fixed rents were offset by the new taxes: “Our calculation at the time these taxes were introduced were that overall it balances out, but that some resorts pay more.”

Recent changes introduced by the new government to the payment of lease extensions – from a lump sum to an annual basis – have also pulled US$135 million in revenue from the 2012 budget, the ousted Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) contends.

Economic indicators published by the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) meanwhile show a fall in the number of tourist arrivals for March 2012 compared to the previous year, from 80,732 to 76,469. The number of bed nights fell 6.8 percent for the same period, one of only a few recorded declines since the 2004 tsunami. February – a month of high political turmoil and widespread negative international media coverage – recorded a 2.5 percent decline.

An increase in prices would affect established markets already under strain, Ibrahim reiterated.

“It’s hard to say if emerging markets would be put off – China, Russia and the Middle East – maybe not. But [price increases] are affecting the established market. The market situation is not looking good at the moment.”

A survey of nearly 3000 tourists last year reported that 46 percent believed accommodation in the Maldives was too expensive. Soft drinks, alcohol were rated as expensive by 42 percent, while food, water and souvenirs received a similar rating from 41 percent of tourists polled.

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Roadmap talks stall as government parties contest legitimacy of MDP representatives

The India-sponsored all-party talks ground to a halt again yesterday, after parties affiliated with the ruling coalition challenged the legitimacy of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s representation.

The ousted party’s President Dr Ibrahim Didi and Vice President Alhan Fahmy were removed from their posts last week in a near unanimous vote by the party’s national council. The pair are contesting their dismissal.

“The Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) delegate walked out questioning the legality of the MDP leadership,” explained Dr Mariyam Zulfa, who represented the MDP at the talks, together with party spokesperson Hamid Abdul Ghafoor.

“We are of the opinion that they had planned to derail the talks before they had begun. The PPM delegate said legitimacy of the [MDP’s] leadership was in question. I think it was not a matter for them to decide,” Dr Zulfa said.

“Our representatives went through the protocol and processes and were authorised to attend. This is a plan to stall the talks,” she added.

Dhivehi Rayithunge Party (DRP) Deputy Leader Ibrahim Shareef, of the new ruling coalition which the MDP contests came to power in a coup d’état on February 7, said the DRP was now waiting for the Elections Commission (EC) to make a decision on the legality of the MDP’s current leadership, and its authority to appoint representatives to the all party talks.

“[The representatives] must be properly endorsed by the party. Somebody with the authority to nominate the representative of the party, such as President or Vice President,” he said, noting that the DRP was “unhappily” not present during yesterday’s talks.”

Dr Zulfa described the roadmap talks as “a bit of a farce”.

“[President] Dr Mohamed Waheed is purporting to the international community that he is bringing all the parties to the table, but on the weekend he went out in public and said the earliest he would hold elections was July 2013. He is saying one thing and doing quite the opposite. It is very revealing to us,” she said.

“The PPM is behind the coup-led government, and the longer they can stay in power the better it is for them. They have not taken into account the people’s vote – our agenda is to restore the legitimacy of government,” Dr Zulfa said.

The talks previously stalled in March after parties were unable to agree on a priority for the five item agenda, which includes early elections.

“The MDP at first chose to not take part in the talks, and there was such a big outcry from the opposition parties that we were not acting in good faith,” Dr Zulfa said. “Now we are participating, early elections are on the agenda, and they are saying the talks are designed so that MDP will benefit the most from them. It is quite amazing.”

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Mulay failed to pass information on coup to Indian government: Open Magazine

Senior figures of former President Mohamed Nasheed’s government have accused Indian High Commissioner Dnyaneshwar M Mulay of failing to pass critical information to the Indian government on February 7, as mutinying police and army officers joined opposition demonstrators to overthrow Nasheed’s presidency.

The allegations were published in India’s weekly current affairs and features magazine, Open, following Nasheed’s recent visit to India.

Former National Security Advisor Ameen Faisal told the magazine that he was “surprised” that Mulay was in the company of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s half-brother, Abdulla Yameen, during the upheaval, and made no attempt to contact the elected government.

“I believe that proper information was not passed on to Indian authorities,” Faisal alleged, to Open.

“I was surprised that instead of contacting us, the government [of the Maldives], Mulay was having a discussion with opposition party leaders like Yameen in the Indian High Commission, when the coup was happening. In a situation like this, why call the opposition and not establish contact with the government? Before this happened, I never suspected [any conspiracy]. We were very close,” he said.

“I maintained a close relationship with Mulay. I called him three or four times while the coup was underway. I could not contact President Nasheed. At that point, he was inside the army headquarters and his phone was jammed. I spoke to Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem, instead, for his advice on seeking Indian intervention to control the situation. He told me that President Nasheed did not want any military intervention as it was an ‘internal matter’,” Faisal recalled.

“Later, Naseem called me to request some assistance from India. As the national security advisor, I called up Mulay and sought Indian assistance… He asked me to ask the foreign minister to send a note. I told Mulay that this was no time to be sending notes or love letters.”

Mulay, Faisal contended, “could see what was happening from his window. The whole coup was being telecast live. As a diplomat, he should’ve known that the whole country was in chaos.”

Faisal further claimed that Mulay had earlier informed him that the Indian Navy vessel INS Suvarna was in Maldivian waters three days before the events of February 7, and departed that morning. Open independently confirmed the presence of the vessel in Maldivian waters on that date.

“If the Indian Naval ship was just an hour away, it was in our territorial waters, why was the [Maldives] government not informed of it? What was the Indian naval ship doing there?” Faisal alleged.

Open observed that former President Nasheed appeared careful not to go on record with any allegations himself – and instead deferred to Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) interim Chairperson ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik, “to speak on my behalf”.

“[Mulay] became so powerful that he started behaving like the prime minister and not a high commissioner. In early 2011, we felt that Mulay was drifting away from the MDP. He wanted to meet leaders of opposition parties. He wanted to be invited to all official functions that took place in Maldives. He was invited to many government functions, but not all. We found that a lot of companies were coming [to the country] for business through Mulay. We were floating tenders for big projects. He would act like a middleman,” Manik alleged to Open.

“Mulay would visit various [Maldivian] islands with his Indian friends, many of them businessmen. The government did not know who they were. Mulay has good connections with opposition parties, particularly Gayoom’s party,” he further claimed.

Manik also alleged that Yameen was present in Mulay’s office on the morning of February 7, while outside, a group of opposition supporters had joined police in an all-out assault on the country’s main military base in Republic Square. A second group broke down the gates of the state broadcaster, and took over the station. President Nasheed subsequently resigned, later alleging this was under duress.

“How many times did Mulay try to talk to somebody in the Government of India when all this was going on? How many times did Mulay call the Indian Government to ask them to intervene? There are 30,000 Indians living here and Indian business interests are at stake. He should have informed the Indian authorities. There is something fishy about Mulay’s response,” Manik told Open.

Open sought response from India’s Ministry of External Affairs, which did not address the allegations, but instead expressed “full confidence” in Mulay.

“The alleged references to the High Commissioner’s conduct in some media interactions by former President Nasheed were raised during his discussions with Indian officials,” noted MEA Spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin.

“Former President [Nasheed] had clarified that he had not said the things attributed to him in the media. He said that he had known the High Commissioner for three years. The High Commissioner was a poet and he liked him. There were never any issues with the High Commissioner and he would clarify this to the media appropriately,” Akbaruddin claimed.

“We do not think it is appropriate to bring our High Commissioner into the discourse. He enjoys our full confidence.”

Speaking to Minivan News, Mulay declined to comment on the specific allegations, “as my government has already responded”, but described them as “completely baseless, a flight of fancy.”

Yameen confirmed to Minivan News that he had met with Mulay on the morning of February 7.

“It was Mulay who SMSed me and asked me to come and discuss the national crisis,” he said. “Mulay asked me to get a checklist of demands [from the protesters] and try to see if there could be a three-day respite.”

Asked why he believed Mulay had contacted him, Yameen said he believed it was “because PPM was the largest opposition party [at the time].”

Additional allegations made by Manik and published in Open, that Yameen had “ transferred several thousand US dollars from Colombo to some army and police officials by way of travellers’ cheques”. However Yameen dismissed the allegations as “absolute gibberish.”

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High Court denies ACC injunction as commission appeals Civil Court ruling on Nexbis

The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) has appealed a ruling from the Civil Court blocking its order to halt the implementation of a border control system agreement between the Immigration department and Malaysian firm Nexbis.

The commission also called for an injunction on the installation of the system until the High Court case was resolved, however Judge Azmirelda Zahir said such a decision could only be taken after both sides had presented their cases. The ACC requested an injunction on the grounds that it would lose the possibility of appeal should the project be implemented before the conclusion of the High Court case.

The ACC in December forwarded corruption cases against former – and now reappointed – Immigration Controller Ilyas Hussain Ibrahim and Director General of the Finance Ministry, Saamee Ageel, to the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG), alleging that the pair had abused their authority for undue financial gain in giving the US$39 million to Nexbis.

The 20-year Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) agreement with the Malaysian-based mobile security solutions provider was to upgrade border security in the Maldives with new technology including facial recognition and fingerprint identification, facilitating the identification and tracking of expatriate workers and eliminating the opportunity to people to enter the country with forged paper documents.

The agreement allows Nexbis to levy a fee of Rf30 (US$2) from arriving and departing passengers in exchange for installing, maintaining and upgrading its immigration system. The company would also charge a Rf231 (US$15) for every work permit card.

Immigration Controller under the later months of President Mohamed Nasheed’s administration, Abdulla Shahid, contended that the agreement meant that Nexbis would draw US$200 million in revenue from the project over the life of the 20 year contract, while five percent royalties to the government would equate to US$10 million.

Speaking to Minivan News following the ACC’s initial injunction, Shahid claimed that the deal would deprive the government of significant revenues, when “border control is not something we are unable to comprehend – it is a normal thing all over the world.”

Shahid estimated that a free system given by a donor country would cost at most several hundred thousand dollars a year, and said he was unsure as to why such an agreement had ever been signed.

However, Nexbis said in a subsequent statement that its agreement meant that neither the government nor the Maldivian public would pay upfront for “state-of-the-art border security protection”, and suggested that “reasonable persons will likely realise that once the hidden costs after are taken into account and adjusted for inflation, the benefits and efficiencies of the Nexbis system will far outweigh the risk, inadequacies and uncertainties of any such alleged cheaper system.”

The Civil Court in January 2012 ruled that the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) did not have the legal authority to order Immigration Department to terminate the agreement, with Judge Ali Rasheed ruling that while the ACC Act gave the commission the authority to investigate corruption cases, it was not able to annul contracts.

Judge Rasheed asserted that it was “unfair” to the contractors if ACC could annul an agreement without their input, as this violated their protections under Maldives Contract Law.

During the High Court hearing this week, the ACC charged that the State Attorney during the Civil Court case, Deputy Solicitor General Ahmed Usham, had a conflict of interest as he had been a member of the tender board responsible for awarding the project to Nexbis. Usham disputed the charge.

The case continues.

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Maldives resorts and travel agents head to Arabian Travel Market

The Maldives Marketing and PR Corporation (MMPRC) is participating in the Arabian Travel Market (ATM), the largest annual travel fair aimed at Arab travel agents, held in Dubai until May 4.

The fair includes 21,000 square metres of floor space hosting over 2,400 exhibitors from around the world.

The Maldives has registered a 77.8 percent increase in tourist arrivals from the Middle East region in the first quarter of 2012 compared to the same period last year, while some traditional markets have shown signs of recovery. The MMPRC has remarked on a particular increase in travellers from Saudi Arabia.

Sixteen resorts from the Maldives and 17 travel agents are participating the ATM fair, the MMPRC noted.

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MATI concerned over “concerted international campaign” against several resort owners

The Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI) has issued a statement expressing “serious concern” over what it describes as a “concerted international campaign” against several of the country’s resort operators.

MATI claimed that calls from the Maldives Tourism Advisory (MTA) for tourists to avoid certain properties on the basis of ownership were “libelous in the extreme”, as the allegations against the tourist resort operators “have not been proven either through an investigation or a court of law.”

The MTA website features a ‘traffic light’ system with “red” resorts recently appearing to have been expanded to include an assortment of 18 properties owned by Vice President Waheed Deen and senior figures associated with the new ruling coalition, including Jumhoree Party (JP) Leader Gasim Ibrahim, Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) MP Abdulla Jabir, and Hussain ‘Champa’ Afeef.

MATI claimed that “unsubstantiated charges directed at some resort operators [will] result not only in loss of business at their resorts, but in loss of reputation and standing in international markets and the global community.”

“A call to boycott the resorts could [also] lead to enormous loss of business and lay-off of resort staff and support workers, not to mention those several small businesses that cater to the tourism industry that will be affected.”

The resort body accused the campaigners of “not having the decency to come out in the open” and “hiding behind the safe veil of the internet.”

“It is our belief that the several accusations and charges directed at the operators of resort businesses must be proven in a court of law before these businesses are subject to industrial action or denunciation.”

The MTA yesterday released a statement in response to MATI, emphasising that it was not calling for a boycott but rather “supplementing” existing travel advice from the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

“Visitors choosing to be selective and avoiding resorts tainted by the actions of their owners might lead to some loss of business to these resorts, but we are quite convinced that it would not have an overall impact on the economy of the Maldives,” the MTA said in a statement. “Nor would it seriously affect the prospects of employment for Maldivians. This is proven by the government’s own figures showing a healthy increase in tourism arrivals.”

“While MATI mentions investigations of resort owners in a “court of law” it can clearly be seen that the Maldivian judiciary would be an inappropriate institution for such an investigation, given that one of MATI’s senior members (and whose resorts we recommend avoiding) sits on the Judicial Services Commission (JSC), the body tasked with overseeing the judiciary,” the MTA noted.

“”The only ‘investigation’ that we are aware of at present is the Commission of National Inquiry (CNI). This is deemed to be neither serious, timely nor unbiased by international observers and most Maldivians. No serious efforts have been made to address the deficiencies in this investigation, and they do not involve the resort owners mentioned in the MTA.

“The MTA always carefully considers all the available facts from several sources when recommending resorts to be avoided. There is no necessity to await ‘investigations’ and “courts of law” (as the MATI statement suggests) as MTA recommendations are based on important information that serves to enable visitor choice.”

Quarterly tourism figures published by the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) showed a 3.3 percent rise in visitor arrivals compared to the same period in 2011, however this was lower than the 12.6 percent growth seen in the first quarter of 2011 compared to 2010.

Growth in Chinese arrivals slowed dramatically due to cancelled charter flights, while several of the country’s mainstay markets declined – including Italy, France and the UK. Russian, German, Swiss and Middle Eastern arrivals showed strong increases.

Tourism Minister Ahmed Adheeb and former Tourism Minister Dr Mariyam Zulfa were not responding at time of press.

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