Author: JJ Robinson

Chinese firm to take over Gaafaru wind farm project following collapse of GE/Falcon Energy deal

Chinese electrical manufacturing firm XEMC will take over the development of the government’s flagship renewable energy project, the Gaafaru wind farm, following the behind-the-scenes collapse of the US$200 million dollar agreement between GE and Falcon Energy late last year.

Under the new agreement between XEMC and the State Electric Company (STELCO), XEMC will install turbines capable of generating 50 megawatts and submarine cables servicing the greater Male’ area, under a build, own and operate arrangement.

A backup liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant will also be built, capable of providing up to 30 megawatts on windless days, or when there is not enough wind to meet demand. The wind farm will provide up to 20 megawatts to STELCO’s grid, supplementing its current install capacity of 38.76 megawatts.

STELCO’s Managing Director Dr Mohamed Zaid told Minivan News that under the 25 year agreement the new facility will be owned by XEMC and the electricity bought by STELCO, with construction of the wind turbines starting within three months.

XEMC was selected through an open tender, Dr Zaid said, adding that STELCO had not signed a private partnership agreement with GE/Falcon.

“Initially we did not limit this project to a specific renewable energy source, but the XMEC group recommended using wind turbines given their experience with the technology,” Dr Zaid said, during the signing event held recently at the President’s Office.

He said was unable to provide reasons for the collapse of the GE/Falcon Energy deal “at this time”, and the circumstances around it remain unknown.

Minivan News was told that the reasons included a lack of consensus between the parties involved, and whether they had the requisite experience: “Falcon didn’t work out,” said one informed source, while “a lot of things were not carried out according to the memorandum of understanding,” said another. Local newspaper Haveeru meanwhile reported that there were concerns about pricing and profitability of the enterprise.

The original much-publicised project was to be central to the government’s ambition for the country to become carbon neutral by 2020, and promised a 75 megawatt wind farm in North Malé Atoll that was to produce enough clean energy to allow Malé, Hulhulé and a number of resorts to “switch off their existing diesel power generators”, according to the President’s Office at the time. Excess electricity on windy days was to be diverted to a desalination plant located on Hulhumale’.

The project was, according to President Mohamed Nasheed during its launch, intended to “reduce fuel imports into the country by 25 percent and cut carbon emissions by 40 percent.”

Minivan News raised concerns in an article published in April 2010 that according to figures published in a 2003 report by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), North Malé Atoll had an annual average wind speed of 4.9 m/s (17.7 km/h), while a 2005 report by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) described the minimum average wind speed needed to run a utility-scale wind power plants as 6 m/s (21.6 km/h).

That report stated that because “power available in the wind is proportional to the cube of its speed… doubling the wind speed increases the available power by a factor of eight.”

For example, a turbine operating at a site with an average of 20 km/h should produce 33 percent more electricity than a site operating at 19 km/h, because the cube of 20 is larger than the cube of 19.

This means that a difference of just 1 km/h in wind speed could significantly bring down productivity of the wind farm.

The Falcon/GE project’s local lead, Umar Manik, told Minivan News at the time that due to engineering advances the Gaafaru wind farm was expected to run on a minimum wind speed of 5.7 m/s.

However at time of signing the MoU, Falcon had still to raise the required investment with international banks, which by the time of Minivan News’ 2010 article had almost doubled to US$370 million from the original estimate of US$200 million.

“International banks are very keen to invest in the Maldives,” Manik told Minivan News at the time, “but they need eighteen months of wind surveys. They are becoming partners, they don’t want to lose their money.”

The turbines were to be planted once six months of data had been gathered, “to give us full confidence,” according to Manik.

While data was to be gathered by a 150-foot tall wind mast installed in the area, a LNG backup generator with a capacity of 50 megawatts was to be constructed with a supply contract reportedly signed with a Saudi Arabian firm. The deal was quietly terminated in late 2010.

Minivan News was unable to establish the credentials of Falcon Energy, which no longer appears to have a web presence. The Singapore-listed Falcon Energy Group, a major offshore oil and gas player that was widely presumed by the international energy media to be the party involved in the Gaafaru project, denied any knowledge of its existence when contacted by Minivan News last week. GE meanwhile failed to respond to enquiries.

Falcon Energy was introduced in the President Office’s original release as having commissioned “onshore and offshore wind farms totalling 1,500 MW over the past 10 years, in the UK, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Canada.”

Interviewing Manik last April, Minivan was led to understand that Falcon Energy Group was based in the UK and represented a consortium of four companies – two from the UK, including Falcon Energy, one from Holland and another from Saudi Arabia.

The government’s Isles project website states that when the MoU signed with Falcon Energy was terminated a decision was made to proceed with a new group identified as ‘STAR Renewables Consortium’, a joint venture represented by the Saudi Trading and Resources Company. However an MoU was never signed as STELCO elected to proceed with an open tender – a process that led to the current deal with XEMC.

Minivan News understands that at least two years of wind data needs to be collected before the Gaafaru venture can proceed – data that should be available by the end of the year.

“The only wind speed data currently available is not good enough for a commercial venture,” an informed source told Minivan News. “That will determine what sort of turbines are needed – some are better at low wind speeds.”

LNG was selected as a backup option due to the ability to rapidly power it on and off as demand necessitated, however “at some point we will want to switch off the gas.”

Minivan News understands that the intention is to ultimately power Male’ and its surrounding islands with a mixture of wind, gas and marine current generation, with potential for the latter presently being determined by a £48,000 (US$76,000) study led by Scotland’s Robert Gordon University and due to report this year.

Foreign investment in such projects is subsequently to be coordinated by the government’s new office of Renewable Energy Investment, operating under the Ministry of Economic Development.

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PA MP announces decision to leave party following coalition split

MP of the opposition-aligned People’s Alliance (PA) Ahmed Rasheed has announced on MNBC his decision to leave the party “to better serve the public as an independent.”

Rasheed, who spoke to the state broadcaster on Sunday, also said he was open to joining other parties “if it was within the public interest.”

The PA’s acting Secretary General Ahmed Musthafa however told Minivan News today that he was unable to confirm whether Rasheed had left the party: “We don’t believe he has moved. I saw him yesterday,” he said, adding that the party would issue a formal communication on the matter in the next few days.

“Maybe he has been pressured by another party such as the MDP to join, although I don’t think he will,” Musthafa said.

Once Rasheed officially informs parliament of his new status as an independent, his departure from the PA could force the committee composition to be revisited for a third time this session.

While the PA would be entitled to fewer seats, parliamentary rules dictate that Rasheed must be given a seat on at least one committee as an Independent.

MP Ahmed Rasheed represents the constituency of Isdhoo in Laamu Atoll, an area of strong opposition support that voted largely for PA candidates under its former coalition agreement with the Dhivehi Rayithunge Party (DRP).

The PA decided decided on July 13 to break the longstanding coalition agreement, after internal strife within the DRP saw the party split into factions loyal to its leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali or the party’s ‘honorary leader’, former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

Eleven of the DRP’s MPs met with other opposition parties, including the Jumhoree Party (JP), the Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) and an independent MP to discuss the creation of a new voting bloc, one which could see the DRP’s majority control of parliament reduced to 13-15 MPs.

DRP MP Abdulla Mausoom raised concern following the split that the PA’s decision to break the coalition agreement would upset constituents in Laamu Atoll who “are very loyal to the DRP but voted for the PA tag.”

Z-DRP MP Ahmed Mahlouf responded that such islands “voted for the PA because President Gayoom asked them to do it. Even now Zaeem (Gayoom) is with the PA, they are working together. Voters in Laamu didn’t vote for Thasmeen – they voted for Gayoom.”

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BML records 40 percent increase in half-yearly profits

The Bank of Maldives (BML) has recorded a significant increase in operating profits of almost 40 percent in the first half of 2011, according to half-yearly results released yesterday.

Notably, the bank’s operating profits for the second quarter of 2011 were Rf 132,201,055 (US$8.57 million) in the second quarter of 2011 compared to Rf 79,872,266 (US$5.17 million) for the same period in 2010.

BML said in a statement that the total profits would be allocated to cover loan loss provisions in the second quarter of 2011. The bank will also not issue dividends to shareholders this year.

The bank also announced the launch of a business transformation programme that will see it evolve into a financial services institution “with a stronger focus on customers and service provision”.

International human resource consultancy firm Hunter Roberts, which has worked with major UK banks including Barclays, had been appointed to develop effective employee policies and provide staff development, BML said.

Speaking to Minivan News in April following his appointment, BML’s new CEO Peter Horton identified service provision as a particular area of improvement for the bank.

“I think this business grew very rapidly, not just the loan base but in terms of customers, especially if you look at what BML was 10 years ago,” he said at the time.

“That goes some way to explaining why we have such big queues in the banking hall. When I came out for my interview I took the time to walk around Male’ several times – and go in very incognito to see the BML branch. I have to experience what the customer experiences, and I don’t think that experience is what any of us want.”

Horton spent 15 years with Barclays in the UK before moving to Africa to run the bank’s corporate turnaround teams, where he became experienced in dealing with distressed portfolios and problem lending. Speaking to Minivan News in April, he identified BML’s high non-performing loan problem as a key impediment to the bank’s performance, noting that it not only had a carrying cost “but it also creates a certain mood around the business internally and externally.”

Horton also worked in the offshore finance field with a subsidiary of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in the Bahamas, and has championed the potential for the Maldives to develop an offshore finance sector.

“If you look at the world’s emerging economies, which are moving West to East, our proximity to India and to a lesser extent Sri Lanka, and with direct flights to most South-East Asian cities, should be a huge advantage for us,” he told Minivan News.

“The majority of offshore banking centres do rely on imported people and institutions. They are truly migratory these days. We are in a global economy now where things move overnight, so if you were able to do the things to attract people, it is very, very doable.

“The other thing is having sufficient protection around the business – having a strong regulator, a strong legal system, and probably some degree of monetary protection. If a private bank is bringing dollars into the country, there needs to be some degree of certainty that the dollars can sit in the country quite safely,” he said.

The Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) has meanwhile announced a 13 percent increase in bank profit taxes collected in 2010 revenue. The country’s six banks paid Rf 226 million (US$14.65 million) in taxes, it said.

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Tourism boost from Baa Atoll’s UNESCO status a management challenge

The designation of Baa Atoll as a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve is a significant achievement for the Maldives but makes proper management all the more imperative, government organisations and environmental NGOs have said.

Baa Atoll was last month added to the UN body’s global list of biosphere reserves, placing it in the company of world famous sites such as the Komodo in Indonesia, Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) in Australia and the Galapagos Islands.

The listing recognises “where local communities are actively involved in governance and management, research, education, training and monitoring at the service of both socio-economic development and biodiversity conservation,” UNESCO said in a statement.

It has also prompted a surge of tourism interest in Baa Atoll, requiring local bodies to balance the impact and sustainability objectives of the biosphere with the new income.

Director of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) Ibrahim Naeem said it took five years of lobbying for Baa Atoll to become the first globally recognised biosphere in the Maldives.

“The whole atoll has been zoned into three categories, limiting activities conducted there,” he explained.

‘Core areas’ account for 10 percent of the atoll with no extraction activities permitted – “look and see only”, Naeem explained. Buffer areas limit some activities while transitional areas allow most activities if conducted in a sustainable fashion.

Exceptionally unique areas, such as Hanifaru Bay, have a management plan to limit access, Naeem explained: “We allow resorts and safari boats to visit Hanifaru Bay on alternate days to avoid conflicts,” he said, adding that the EPA had appointed a ranger to monitor vessels in the area and was training several more to cover the rest of the atoll.

At the beginning of the process many locals expressed reluctance about the atoll being designated a biosphere, fearing that their traditional fishing areas would be restricted, he acknowledged.

That concern still exists, says Ahmed Ikram, Director of Environmental NGO Bluepeace.

“Local divers and other groups are concerned that these places will become so protected and so exclusive that locals will be unable to access them,” he said. “We have started to hear concerns that these sites will be cordoned off to the public, with access controlled by resorts and limited access for independent dive companies and safaris.”

Local people needed to be trained as rangers, guides and attendants, and NGOs, island womens’ committees and fishermen needed to be involved in decision-making, Ikram said.

“The EPA has handed the management to the Baa Atoll council, but without any capacity building,” he claimed, while resorts sponsored “greenwashing” campaigns to fulfill their corporate social responsibility objectives, protecting their house reefs and excluding local communities.

“The reefs around resorts are some of the most protected in the Maldives. Why are the house reefs of local islands not being protected too?” Ikram asked.

In some cases tourism authorities had failed to take into account traditional bait fishing grounds when leasing islands for resort development.

“If they fall in the vicinity [of the resort] the fishermen will still go there to fish, as they have done so for thousands of years – it would quickly become a national issue if they were stopped,” he said, adding that climate change had also affected many of these areas forcing fishermen to harvest bait elsewhere.

“Already in some areas climate change has meant that fishermen are having to dive 40 metres to get bait,” Ikram said. “We need to remember than man is part of the ecosystem.”

Deputy Environment Minister Mohamed Shareef told Minivan News that the Baa Atoll management scheme would include the creation of revenue mechanism for the community whereby, for example, “one dollar from each dive goes to fund the needs of the local community.”

The management process, he said, was participatory, and for the locals, “absolutely nothing has changed. Local fishing practices and the manner of living is very sustainable, from knowledge generated over many years.”

Baa Atoll is home to 12,000 people distributed across 13 populated islands and six resorts. The atoll is one of the most biodiverse in the Maldives with high concentrations of manta rays, whale sharks and turtles, and a number of species of coral and sea slugs unique to the area.

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Nexbis signals willingness to negotiate border control agreement

Mobile security system vendor Nexbis, which is behind the stalled build, operate and transfer agreement to upgrade the Maldives’ immigration system, has issued a statement welcoming the government’s decision to proceed with the project and said it is willing to negotiate the terms of the contract.

The upgrade was stalled earlier this year when the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) expressed concerns about the deal, claiming that there were “opportunities for corruption” during the bidding process.

“A number of further gross inaccuracies continue to be perpetrated, whether intentionally or through ignorance, particularly regarding the cost of the contract,” Nexbis said in its statement.

“Despite sensationalist claims in the media regarding [the tender process], the terms agreed to by the parties, or the suitability of the system being provided, Nexbis will be delivering a state-of-the-art, flexible and cost-effective security solution.”

Under the 20 year agreement, Nexbis levies a fee of US$2 from arriving and departing passengers in exchange for installing, maintaining and upgrading its immigration system, and a fee of US$15 for every work permit card.

“This means that neither the government nor the Maldivian public have to pay in exchange for a state-of-the-art border security protection,” Nexbis claimed.

The company said that “although the bid proposed a fee to be applied to all travellers including Maldivians”, the company waived the charges for Maldivians “as a goodwill gesture.”

“In addition Nexbis is providing a five percent revenue share to the government should passenger numbers grow. In stark contrast to some of the other bids, we have not requested a guaranteed minimum volume of passengers. Essentially the company must bear the cost risk should the number of visitors to the Maldives drop as has previously occurred during the tsunami and financial crisis.”

Immigration Controller Abdulla Shahid has expressed concern over both the cost and necessity of the project, calculating that with continued growth in tourist numbers Nexbis would be earning US$200 million in revenue over the 20 year lifespan of the agreement.

At five percent, royalties to the government would come to US$10 million, Shahid said, when there was little reason for the government not be earning the revenue itself by operating a system given by a donor country.

“Border control is not something we are unable to comprehend – it is a normal thing all over the world,” Shahid told Minivan News.

“There is no costing of the equipment Nexbis is installing – we don’t know how much it is costing to install, only how much we have to pay. We need to get everything out in the open.”

Nexbis meanwhile argues 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.”

“This frees up the [Department of Immigration] from managing systems and securing the budget year in, year out to ensure the system is maintained. This will prevent interruption of service and avoid potential corruption as there will no longer be a need to purchase equipment every year.”

Shahid however estimates that maintaining 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.

“Airport charges are calculated based on government expenditure – such as the cost of the immigration counters. The US$18 collected as an airport tax is included in the ticket, and in the end [under this agreement] the amount for immigration will be going to Nexbis,” he said.

He further noted that despite Nexbis offering not to charge Maldivians for use of the service as a “goodwill gesture”, there was no mention in the contract that Maldivians would have to pay at the border: “the contract says every foreigner,” he said.

Shahid would not comment on the specifics of the pending negotiations with Nexbis, but said that the Immigration Department had the government’s full support in the matter.

Nexbis meanwhile said it had agreed to review the government’s additional requirements, “and have expressed our willingness to accommodate any such changes within commercially viable terms.”

“We have this requires some changes to the solution we ultimately provide, then it is within the scope of our agreement to accommodate these changes,” the company said.

Meanwhile, an ongoing police investigation into labour trafficking in the Maldives last week uncovered an industry worth an estimated US$123 million, eclipsing fishing (US$46 million in 2007) as the second greatest contributor of foreign currency to the Maldivian economy after tourism.

Police discovered several thousand passports confiscated from expatriate workers during a recent raid of 18 ‘paper companies’, created to fraudulently apply for work permit quotas. The imported workers, many of them illiterate and from rural Bangladesh, are then typically employed for a pittance under substandard conditions or else simply abandoned at the airport after having paid up to US$2000 to bogus recruitment agencies.

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Out on a wing: Mega bets on Chinese market

The shifting demographics of the Maldives tourism industry presents new challenges – and a great many opportunities – for the country to grow as a destination, says CEO of new Maldivian flag carrier Mega Maldives, George Weinmann, during a ceremony in Male’ this week to mark the airline’s launch of direct flights to Shanghai and Beijing.

Since its maiden flight between Gan and Hong Kong early this year, Mega has focused on the country’s booming Chinese market. Chinese visitors last year showed the highest number of arrivals over more established markets, and were widely credited with insulating the Maldives from the effects of the economic recession afflicting the UK and Europe.

Weinmann emphasises that “while the Chinese market is now the number one market for the Maldives, is still not a mature market.”

“The agents in China don’t know the Maldives as well as the European agents who have been coming here for 30 years,” he explains. “The new agents are often asking us for help finding hotel rooms, and negotiate with the hotels – it’s not really our job, we’re an airline and there’s plenty of travel agencies on both sides – but oftentimes they aren’t connected. There have been incidents in the past where certain agents get very excited and think they can just fly their guests here, only to find there are no hotel rooms for their guests.”

Without intending to become a travel agency, the airline had found itself becoming an intermediary between the Chinese tour operators and resorts, he says, many of which are still getting to grips with the unique demands of the new market.

“We talk to resorts that are suffering with occupancy, perhaps 30-40 percent,” says Mega’s Marketing Director Ali Faiz, “and see how we can help each other. We also meet with resorts that are popular with the Chinese market and offer our jet to help them sell the Maldives.”

Whereas European guests tend to stay up to two weeks at resorts, the current trip pattern for Chinese visitors is very short – “four nights, five days,” says Weinmann.

“They are much more activity focused – a little less sun and sea, a little more doing things on a boat,” he says. “Like every other market they are very food conscious – but the type of food they are looking for is different, which for instance affects how we cater for inflight meals –  although everyone likes ice-cream,” he adds.

Moreover, “as someone who has lived in China for seven years – they are huge spenders. The Chinese love to buy things. One complaint they may have with the Maldives is that there is not enough stuff to buy – they come here often with large wads of money and then go home with it. That’s an opportunity for local businessmen.”

The market is also rather risk adverse, which the fledgling airline found to its detriment in May when Hong Kong authorities issued a travel warning for the Maldives, triggered by excitable global media coverage of opposition-led protests in Male’.

“That was a near tragedy for us. We almost didn’t survive that period,” Weinmann acknowledges. “It came at the same time as changes on our side with pricing, and we almost lost the entire month of May because people who had been intending to go to the Maldives but hadn’t yet bought their tickets decided not to go.

“There was very low additional sales in May. Those people who had already bought their tickets – who had spent hundreds of dollars on rooms – couldn’t get that money back so they came anyway, and of course there were no problems. But when a warning like that goes out, anybody who has the discretion to choose not to buy, to choose somewhere else or postpone their trip, will do so. It doesn’t matter if it’s a yellow, red or black warning – it’s a huge hit. Just ask people in Thailand about what they experienced during their local turmoil. It is a roller-coaster ride in terms of bookings.”

Mega worked with resorts and the government to try and reassure visitors that the protests were limited to a few streets of the capital city – which few visitors to the country even set foot on.

“Recovery takes time,” Weinmann says. “When the incidents are over, then you have to go out and educate the market and tell all the travel agents what is going on. For a market like China that is growing as fast as it is, they do have other choices, and they are not as comfortable with the Maldives as the European market, which sees such incidents as a small bump in road.”

“We did obviously recover,” he adds, “because we launched Beijing-Shanghai a couple of months later, and that’s been very successful.”

Mega subsequently decided to introduce free cancellation insurance for every ticket, covering the first night of accommodation in the event of a delayed flight, which Weinmann explains was a way of offsetting the non-negotiable cancellation policies of many resorts in the Maldives.

“It’s one of the biggest issues in the Asian market right now,” he said. “We are competing against other Asian markets such as Bali and Thailand, and other island destinations such as Guam that are developing very fast, and in many of these countries hotels don’t have the kind of cancellation policies that exist in the Maldives. It makes it more risky for tour operators to sell the Maldives – we’re trying to eliminate that risk.”

Weinmann believes the Maldives also has room to grow existing markets, and said Mega hoped to launch flights to so-called ‘tier 2’ cities and stimulate growth in places such as Eastern Europe.

Korea also has more potential, he explained, noting that Mega would introduce a flight to Seoul in September.

“There are current five wide-body aircraft flying between Korea and Hawaii every day. That’s a nine hour flight, and the Maldives is probably a little cheaper.”

India, on the Maldives’ doorstep, was exactly two years behind China he predicts.

“But it’s a challenge that regulations prevent a Maldivian carrier flying more than 200 seats to Mumbai or Delhi. We have 250 seats, and we’d like to change that.”

Cargo imports are another growth opportunity, Weinmann says, announcing 15 discounted tickets to kickstart a trade delegation of Maldivian traders and businessmen to find opportunities in China.

“Right now all the cargo coming into the Maldives goes through Sri Lanka, Singapore or Dubai,” he explains. “Not much is produced in these locations, it’s all coming from somewhere else – a lot of it from China. We want to increase direct imports from China which should mean less cost and cheaper prices, as there will be less middlemen involved.”

Meanwhile, the airline has begun recruiting more Maldivian cabin crew, in addition to the two classes already through, and is currently training six Maldivian pilots and soon, engineering cadets. Weinmann predicts the company will employ over 100 Maldivian staff by the end of the year.

“We not doing this just because we want to, but because it’s the right thing for the airline. We think Maldives aviation can grow a lot further,” he says.

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Human trafficking worth US$123 million, authorities estimate

An ongoing police investigation into labour trafficking in the Maldives has uncovered an industry worth an estimated US$123 million, eclipsing fishing (US$46 million in 2007) as the second greatest contributor of foreign currency to the Maldivian economy after tourism.

The authorities’ findings echo those first raised by former Bangladeshi High Commissioner Dr Selina Mohsin, reported by Minivan News in August last year, and which saw the country placed on the US State Department’s Tier 2 watchlist for human trafficking.

However prior to the current investigation, ordered by President Mohamed Nasheed and which involved the military taking over immigration and human resources duties for a two week period, few facts were known about the Maldivian side of the operation.

“People have been creating fraudulent companies and using them to apply for fraudulent work permit quotas, and then diverting these quotas to keep bringing in illegal workers,” said President Nasheed’s Spokesperson, Mohamed Zuhair.

“A would-be worker [overseas] pays money and ends up here on fraudulent papers obtained by a bogus agent, from quotas at a non-existent company,” Zuhair said. “Sometimes they are expected to work for 3-4 years to make the payment – workers have told police that this is often as much as US$2000.”

Authorities currently estimated the industry to be worth US$123 million a year, he said.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam told Minivan News that many illegal workers identified by police through the investigation – the majority from Bangladesh – had sold their land, their property and moved their families to pay the fees demanded by the bogus recruiters.

When they arrive they find the job a totally different prospect from what they were led to expect, he said.

“Sometimes there is no job and they are released straight onto the street. We found some people who had paid before coming – they arrived at the airport and nobody came to pick them up,” said Shiyam. ”The case is very serious – this is not the way things should be, and it has been going on for a long time.”

Zuhair said that in some cases workers brought to the Maldives were themselves recruited to help enlist others from their country – in addition to seven Maldivians, 12 expatriates have been arrested during the case so far.

Paper companies and ministerial corruption

The expansive investigation has seen 18 ‘paper companies’ raided by the police commercial crime unit, headed by Inspector Mohamed Riyaz, who revealed to the media last week that police had seized 4000 passports confiscated from trafficked workers.

Two of the seven bogus companies identified as trafficking workers, Ozone Investments Pvt Ltd and Arisco Maldives Pvt Ltd, had brought in 3000 workers between them.

Using the fake companies, the traffickers fraudulently obtained work permit quotas for non-existent projects from the Human Resources Ministry by stealing the identities of unwitting Maldivians, or even the deceased. Police had received many complaints about such forgeries from the confused third party, Riyaz told the media.

Moreover, many of the quotas requested from the Human Resources Ministry had been approved despite obvious warning signs such as the importing of construction workers for specialised IT projects, Riyaz said.

Zuhair told Minivan News that while he was unable to “point fingers” as the investigation was ongoing, the current findings implicated senior officials in both the Immigration Department and the Ministry of Human Resources.

In addition, the persistent use of fraudulent companies implied further scrutiny of the Ministry of Trade was required, Zuhair said.

Trade Minister Mahmoud Razee confirmed to Minivan News that the Ministry was providing information to police as requested. Establishing a company in the Maldives carried few requirements under existing laws, he explained, “and even before this we have been proposing amendments to company law to require additional clearances for directors, based on their records.”

Even for those individuals found guilty of the crime labour trafficking presently represents a violation of the Employment Act, and only carries a small fine.

Zuhair said punishment was a matter for the judiciary “and I’m confident justice will be done”. However he acknowledged that the greatest impact would come from exposing those involved: “The people involved will be named and shamed,” he pledged, which would limit their capacity for further fraud or criminal enterprise and hopefully ward off further victims.

The investigation was ordered by the President, he noted, as the Immigration Department and the Human Resources Ministry “were each accusing the other for the problem. The government has stepped in as a neutral party to conduct a holistic investigation, without incrimination.”

He said the government would need to “seek assistance” to deport the large numbers of illegal workers the investigation was likely to uncover.

“The origin countries also have a responsibility to repatriate their nationals,” he said.

Minivan News asked Zuhair why the government had only acted after several years of accusations that labor trafficking was prolific in the country – the US State Department recently renewed the Maldives’ position on the trafficking watch list for the second year running.

“The accusations have been apparent for the last few years, but the extent to which the situation has developed, and the lines between system error, human error and intentional fraud have been unclear. It has now become clearer,” he said.

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New bidding system will limit private vehicle congestion, says Transport Minister

The Ministry of Transport is drafting regulations that will limit applications for private vehicles via a bidding process, in an effort to halt further congestion of cities such as Male’.

“The idea is to control the rising number of vehicles on the streets of Male’,” said Transport Minister Adhil Saleem. “73 percent of people on the street are pedestrians, but the streets are small, especially with two rows of parked motorbikes, and pedestrians are being pinned against the wall.”

The new regulations, which will soon be published in the government’s gazette, will see a certain number of license numbers released to the public each year through public auction. The numbers will go to the applicants who score the most points, and not necessarily the highest bidder.

60 points will be allocated for vehicles with zero emissions, 50 points to the highest bidder, and 10 points for brand new fossil fuel vehicles. No points will be given for imported second hand vehicles, Adhil explained.

“We estimate that this will mean it will cost Rf100,000-200,000 (US$6485-12970) to put a brand new electric vehicle on the road, and Rf300,000-400,000 (US$19455-25940) to put a fossil fuel vehicle on the road,” he said.

The Ministry is also seeking to reform the taxis, Adhil said, which were currently operated like private vehicles rather than as a professional service.

“It’s encouraging the number of taxi drivers who have switched to driving the new buses. I think the scheme has been very successful. Already we can see little improvements in order on the main streets where the buses travel,” he said.

Co-founder of local environmental NGO Bluepeace, Ali Rilwan, said the bidding scheme sounded positive as long as it did not put vehicle ownership only within reach of the privileged.

Male’ already was way beyond its capacity for vehicles, he said. “More high rises are going up and there is just enough room for pedestrians.”

“When school kids come out on a road like Chandhanee Magu there is no space and the road closes,” Rilwan said.

It was a “good question” as to why so many cars and motorbikes were needed on a 2.2 square kilometre island, he noted.

“It’s a fashionable thing – it’s trendy for people to spend their free time riding around.”

People needed to be encouraged to use bicycles, he said, but said many were put off by the high rate of theft.

“Fifteen years ago bicycles had to be registered with a number plate. But when registration was relaxed in the late 1980s, the police were no longer able to identify bicycles and they were frequently stolen. People mark chickens and coconut trees on the islands, but not bicycles.”

It was not uncommon for a student to have to buy 7-10 bicycles during his school life, Rilwan said.

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Maldives President expresses sympathy after Norway terror attack kills 92

President Mohamed Nasheed has sent a message of sympathy to His Majesty King Harald V of Norway, after a bomb attack in Oslo and a shooting rampage on Utoeya Island killed 92 people on Friday.

Norwegian police have since arrested 32 year-old right-wing anti-Islam fanatic Anders Behring Breivik, as the country comes to terms with its worst attack since World War II and the single worst attack by a lone gunman.

85 of the casualties were young people attending the annual summer camp for the youth wing of Norway’s ruling Labour party.

One of the survivors told news agency Reuters that the gunman was dressed as a policeman and “would tell people to come over: ‘It’s OK, you’re safe, we’re coming to help you.’ And then I saw about 20 people come toward him and he shot them at close range.”

Another survivor told media that Breivik “seemed very focused. He took his time and picked victims out one by one. People lay on the ground, and he went over them and shot them in the back. He shot them all twice to make sure they were dead.”

Breivik had undergone compulsory military training as part of Norway’s national service and held licenses for several firearms, including automatic weapons. He surrendered to armed police who arrived at the Utoeya Island camp 40 minutes after being called by panicked attendees.

Police are investigating whether the car bomb, which exploded outside government offices in Oslo, was linked to Brevik’s purchase of six tons of fertiliser for a farm he bought 10 weeks ago.

Al-jazeera reported that under Norwegian law, Breivik faces a maximum sentence of 21 years extendable indefinitely in five year increments.

Norway has meanwhile entered a period of national mourning.

“This is beyond comprehension. It’s a nightmare,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told press in Oslo.

In his letter to the Norwegian King, President Nasheed said he was “deeply shocked and saddened to hear about the bomb attack on government buildings in Oslo and the subsequent shooting on Utoeya Island. The Government and the people of the Maldives and I condemn this wanton act of terror in the strongest terms. At this time of distress I extend my profound sympathy and support to Your Majesty, the Government and the people of Norway.”

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