Category: Business & Tourism

Maldives business news

Workers’ group hopes for strike bill committee amendments

The Tourism Employees Association of Maldives (TEAM) claims it remains hopeful that the passing of a bill to the National Security Committee regulating industrial action by resort workers can still be amended from its current form.

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Ahmed Easa, president of TEAM, told Minivan News that the worker’s group was now waiting to see if amendments relating to the bill made during the committee hearing would address concerns realting to the impact on the right to strike.

In August, the Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) submitted the bill to parliament aimed to regulate industrial action conducted by employees in the Maldives, shortly after a strike at Kurumba resort reduced occupancy to zero.

Parliamentary debate over the bill has obtained both fierce opposition and support from figures across the lucrative tourist industry over arguments that current unregulated strike action is detrimental to travel income.

While Easa claims to be in support of a bill that would provide rules and regulations outlining how workers should conduct strike action, the MP believes the current bill is not such a document, but rather “is mainly drafted to stop strikes.”

The MP argues that the bill in its current form would be unconstitutional and contravene article 31 of the constitution that gives Maldivians the right to strike and article 16 relating to human rights.

It is these arguments that TEAM will hope to pursue in the committee in a bid to amend the bill to set out regulations that it would be willing to back in realation to acceptable strike practice.

The TEAM President claims that he remains more in hope, than optimism that changes will be made to the bill, alleging possible vested resort industry interests within the committee that spans numerous political parties including the MDP and the opposition.

However, should the bill return to the Majlis unchanged, Easa claims he would notify both the President’s Office and the international community in the form of organisations and political bodies like the UN and EU about his concerns.

“The bill is totally against democracy,” he adds. “What we are looking for are regulations that accept that there has to be a reason to strike, and this is how it should be done.

Secretary General of industry body the Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI), Sim Mohamed Ibrahim, said that the organisation, which reprsents a number of the country’s major resort groups, were not looking to prevent strikes. However, he added that the association was looking to prevent strikes from taking place directly on private resort property.

“No striking on the resort is a fundamental right of the owner,” he said. “You don’t strike on the shop floor.”

Sim added that although there may be reasons for workers to strike, these points should not be made in a manner that “inconveniences tourists”. The Secretary General added that this stance need not preclude striking in different environments to the resort.

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Economics and value praised by industry body for ongoing tourist turnaround

The Maldives Association of Travel Agents and Tour operators (MATATO) believes an improving economic situation in a number of key travel markets has helped drive a bounce back in visitor arrivals to the Maldives during 2010, when compared to the same period last year.

Mohamed Maleeh Jamal, Secretary General for the group, said that an improving economic climate and better complimentary packages have been positive developments for the industry after recent negative headlines generated in light of the high profile ‘false wedding’ video widely circulated in the press and online.

The comments were made as tourist arrivals to the Maldives were found to have increased by 19.7 percent during October compared to the same period last year, marking improved fortunes for the country’s travel industry during 2010, according to new official figures.

The statistics from the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture found 74,707 visitors had arrived by air to the Maldives, up from 64,432 a year earlier. The growth continues a successful nine-month period for Maldives tourism that has seen year-on-year visitor growth of 21.8 for the last ten months.

In addressing the increases, Jamal told Minivan News that an improvement in the global economic climate had aided tourist industry commitments to try to be more competitive by offering more complimentary offers like an additional night’s stay or free transfers.

Alongside an explosion of interest from Chinese tourists that the MATATO Secretary General expects to continue during the next few months and years, a ‘good number’ of travellers from established markets in Europe also continued to flock to the nation’s atolls to provide a more balanced revenue source.

Between January to October 2010, Tourism Ministry figures found that 63.3 percent of visitors to the Maldives came from European markets. Asia Pacific territories contributed 32.3 percent of overall travel demand to the country.

The figures come after a turbulent month for Maldivian tourism, following a video recording of a ‘false wedding’ conducted at the Vilu Reef Resort and Spa that depicted some staff members mocking a Swiss couple in the local dialect of Dhivehi during a vow renewal ceremony being leaked online. The incident garnered both local and international coverage.

Jamal said that with many people now deciding to take or research holidays over the internet, the high profile nature of the incident was definitely likely to stain the country’s reputation as a hotspot for luxury and honeymoon travel.

“To be honest, it was a strange incident that we never would have expected to happen,” he added. “We don’t know yet how much of an impact it will ultimately have on tourism. It is not good, but [the impact] has not yet been as bad as we first thought.”

Addressing the incident, Ahmed Solih, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Tourism told Minvan News that he was reluctant to use the term ‘false wedding’ in regard to a ceremony that had been booked as an authentic experience for the couple who had been filmed.

In response, Solih pointed to a number of high profile apologies made to the couple – including a personal call from President Mohamed Nasheed with an offer to come back to the country as his guests – as a reflection of the serious anger among the industry and Maldivians about the incident.

The Permanent Secretary added that although it is impossible to speculate how the wedding video would impact tourist demand in the future, it was now vital for the industry’s reputation to prevent any repeats of the incident in the future.

Solih said that although the incident was isolated to a single occurrence on one of the country’s more than 90 tourist resorts, a number of e-mails and correspondence had been received reflecting the bad taste left by the incident on the tourism market.

In looking at current tourist growth though, Solih believed that the complex nature of tourism means that there are many contributing factors to the growth beyond just fauvorable economic conditions.

The Permanent Secretary claimed that the Ministry was itself focused on trying to diversify the nation’s appeal to a wider number of markets and nations wads vital to try and protect the industry from external factors such as economics that it has no control over.

“Along with the Maldives Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB) we have spent years of hard work researching and looking to new markets,” he said.

Aside from lucrative emerging economies like China, Solih claims that the industry had been making inroads to Middle Eastern and American markets in attempts to try and broaden the Maldives’ appeal around the world.

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Government seeking US$200 million credit line from Sri Lanka

The Maldivian government hopes to finalise an agreement with Sri Lanka to establish a credit line worth US$200 million, President Mohamed Nasheed told press today prior to departing for Sri Lanka to attend the swearing-in ceremony of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

As preliminary discussions for the credit line has been ongoing for some time, the President said that he hoped an agreement would be signed in the near future between the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) and the Sri Lankan Central Bank.

“Our aim is not really to use that money for anything,” he explained. “Our aim is to set up a mechanism for Sri Lankan currency to be available for purchase in the Maldives and for Maldivian currency to be available for purchase in Sri Lanka. To set up that mechanism, first of all a framework agreement has to be established. God willing, these discussions will reach a conclusion during this trip.”

He added that the government’s objective was to enable Maldivians to purchase Sri Lankan rupees with Maldivian rufiyaa for imports as well as making Maldivian rufiyaa available to Sri Lankans who wish to buy Maldivian goods.

The mechanism would improve the country’s balance of payments, broaden business opportunities and alleviate the high demand for US dollars in the country, he said.

While Sri Lankans would spend more on Maldivian products as a result of the agreement, local demand for US dollars would “decline significantly” when Maldivians are able to spend “their own currency in Sri Lanka”.

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New hi-tech passport lab at Male’ International Airport

Amidst ongoing changes scheduled over the next few years at Male’ International Airport, authorities at the travel hub have introduced a new Forensic Document Laboratory they hope can step up detection of fake passports and other illegal documentation used to enter the the country.

As part of plans to strengthen border controls to the country, a source at the immigration department confirmed to Minivan News that the laboratory was now in place at the airport, but could not give any specifics on when it came into operation.

However, citing Immigration Controller, Sheik Ilyas Hussain Ibrahim, Haveeru yesterday reported that the system has already helped lead to the arrest of four Iraqi nationals that had allegedly tried to enter the country under forged passports following its introduction earlier this month.

The Immigration Department was unavailable for comment at time of going to press.

The lab system, which has been set up in collaboration with Australian experts, was unveiled late last month by the Maldives’ Department of Immigration and Emigration as the first technology of its kind to be used in the Maldives.

Ibrahim said during this unveiling back in October the issue of immigration within the secluded atolls of the Maldives has vitally needed addressing in order to better combat potential trafficking and people smuggling.

The new laboratory is seen as an important new tool in reducing such illegal border activities and was backed by a special training three day training session at male’s Holiday Inn. According to an immigration department statement, the training was intended to bring Immigration officers within the country further in line with both local and international security standards. Adoption of the system comes amidst growing concerns about the country’s ability to handle border control as well as the prevention of human trafficking.

Back in August, Minivan News reported how the exploitation of foreign workers is potentially rivaling the country’s fishing sector as the second most prolific source of income after tourism.

The claims, which were based on conservative estimates of Bangladeshi workers turning up at their respective commission in Male’ upon being abandoned upon arrival at the country’s main airport, came from experienced diplomat, Professor Selina Mohsin.

Mohsin, formerly Bangladeshi High Commissioner to the Maldives before finishing her assignment in July, stated that about 40 nationals would turn up every day at the Commission without the work many had been promised by certain employment brokers and working with Maldivian partners.

Most of the stranded workers are thought to have been recruited in rural areas of Bangladesh by local brokers, who would work alongside a Maldivian counterpart.

“The Bangladeshi counterpart charges the worker a minimum of US$2000, but it goes up to $US4000. This money is collected by the counterpart and divided: typically three quarters to Maldivian broker and one quarter to the Bangladeshi counterpart,” Professor Mohsin explained, prior to her departure.

In its 2010 Human Trafficking report – published less than a month after the Maldives was given a seat on the UN Human Rights Council – the State Department estimated that half the Bangladeshis in the Maldives had arrived illegally “and most of these workers are probably victims of trafficking”.

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Maldives grappling with globalisation, says foreign policy expert

The Maldives is grappling with the positive and negative aspects of globalisation, says South Asia security expert Professor Stephen Cohen, formerly of the US Department of State and now senior fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Speaking to Minivan News during a recent visit to the Maldives, Professor Cohen suggested that the Maldives faced a unique set of challenges as a generally homogenous society, relative to the ethnic and religious diversity of neighbouring countries.

“This is a state [which is coping] with the negative and positive aspects of globalisation – one aspect was the decision to become a tourist resort destination in the 70s, but then [a negative aspect] in recent years is that this has established targets for attacks such as those in Bali or Mumbai,” he said.

“The state has to protect those targets, and the Maldives is not a state with giant capability. If there is an [extreme] Islamist element in the country, is there the intelligence capability to monitor them? Can they be put in jail? Can the government anticipate and break up a plot? We won’t know until it happens.”

In the absence of such evidence, Professor Cohen suggested, a balanced policy of appeasement “I think is the only viable strategy.”

“But you have to watch out for the Afghan model, where they played both sides against the middle but eventually lost control. The Nepalese played both sides, balancing India and Pakistan, Israel and the Palestinians, America and the Chinese, but lost sight of their own domestic political process.”

The Maldives, he suggested, could successfully avoid picking a side “as long as it remains an ‘out of the way’ place – they don’t have minerals or oil, so I think they’ll get away with it.”

Nonetheless, the country’s delicate economy and the import of radical Islam meant the nation had shades of Pakistan in the 1950s-1960s, “to the degree that Maldivians are now travelling to places like Pakistan for training,” Professor Cohen said.

A debate over whether an Islamic country such as the Maldives could reconcile itself with dependence on a liquor-selling tourism industry was part of a larger modernisation dialogue happening in countries like Turkey, he said. “Can Islam be tolerant, and how can it deal with extremists in its own ranks? Can you have a modern Muslim state, compatible with the rest of the world? They are finding ways of working around it.”

The Maldives had the foreign policy advantage of having few natural resources coveted by other states, Professor Cohen noted.

“Strategically the Maldives is the soft underbelly to Sri Lanka,” he said, before adding that the reason countries were interested in the small island nation was less to do with its location and more that they did not wish it to fall into the hands of anybody else.

“Everybody wants an independent Maldives – they want to be able to send tourists, and ships. The Maldives is lucky in that it has no disagreements over oil or fish, and while the tourist islands are a delicate asset, I think [the government] understands that.”

As an aside, Professor Cohen recalled his time at the US State Department and noted US involvement in tracking suspected players in the failed 1988 coup by mercenaries linked to the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE).

“It’s a little known fact,” he said. “A passing American vessel transiting in the area picked up the escaping ship and pointed [the pursuers] towards it. I had only just left the State Department but I heard about it. It was a pivotal moment in the country’s history, and its purpose was never quite clear.”

Now, Professer Cohen said, the Maldives is challenged with balancing relations between its larger neighbours and major tourist markets such as China.

“China practices a very skillful kind of low-profile diplomacy. They seem to be able to find what a country needs the most,” Professor Cohen observed. “I’ve seen it in Pakistan – Americans are hated in Pakistan, but the Chinese are beloved. And along come the requests for favours.”

It was difficult to measure the effect of such soft power, he said.

“All you are buying is a moment of hesitation in the mind of the policy maker, when they balance the pros and cons. That’s where the influence is, and that’s where you get your money’s worth.”

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Sale of Holiday Inn to be completed in November

The sale of the Holiday Inn business in Male’ to the Hong Kong-based Shangri-La group is to be completed by the end of November.

The current management were “working closely” with the new owners to “ensure a smooth transition”, said the hotel’s General Manager Michael Melzer.

Holiday Inn’s resort at Kandooma would be unaffected, he said.

The hotel will meanwhile be rebranded from the InterContinental Hotels Group’s mid-scale Holiday Inn brand once the hotel is handed to Shangri-La, presumably to the group’s business hotel brand Traders.

The landmark hotel was opened in September last year, the first international hotel chain to open in Male’.

Staff were informed in October of the decision by the owners, Male Hotel Associates, to sell the business to an international group. The Dhivehi Observer reported that the sum paid was US$42 million for the assets and business of the remainder of the building’s 27 year lease.

Despite opening to great fanfare the flagship Male’ hotel was quickly demonised through a series of cultural blunders, including advertising a BBQ and DJ during Friday prayers on the day of the lunar eclipse in January, but most notably its efforts to acquire a liquor license.

Liquor license denied

In November 2009 the Economic Development Ministry announced new regulations whereby individual liquor licences would be scrapped and instead issued to hotels on inhabited islands with more than 100 beds.

Adhil Saleem, state minister for economic development, confirmed in November that Holiday Inn had applied for a liquor licence, and the hotel quickly became a symbol for an anti-alcohol push by the Islamic Ministry and the government’s coalition partner, the Adhaalath Party, which appealed for no alcohol to be sold on inhabited islands.

Confusing matters, in December parliament voted 28-23 against a bill that would have outlawed the sale of alcohol on inhabited islands. Oddly, a number of MPs who argued vehemently for the bill then voted against it.

Among the MPs who opposed the legislation were Thohdhoo MP Ali Waheed, Galolhu South MP Ahmed Mahlouf, Vili-Maafanu MP Ahmed Nihan, Mid-Henveiru MP Ali Azim, Villigili MP Mohamed Ramiz, Feydhoo MP Alhan Fahmy of the DRP and Maavashu MP Abdul Azeez Jamal Abukaburu and Isdhoo MP Ahmed Rasheed Ibrahim from the People’s Alliance.

The Economic Development Ministry meanwhile argued that lax monitoring of the liquor permits had resulted in a black market for alcohol in the capital Male’.

But, the Ministry’s revised regulations were withdrawn following public pressure before it could be enforced and were sent to a parliamentary committee for consultation.

Under the regulations, tourist hotels in inhabited islands with more than 100 beds would have been authorised to sell alcohol to foreigners, but the hotel bar was to not be visible from outside or to employ Maldivians.

In February, the matter came to a head with a series of protests against the legislation, and as the primary symbol of the new regulations, the Holiday Inn reportedly received a number of bomb threats.

State Minister for Islamic Affairs and Adhaalath party spokesman Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed, one of the leaders of the protest, threatened to resign his post in the ministry along with other senior people if the government approved the regulation.

Sheikh Ilyas Hussain also spoke to the protesters, warning that the former government had been changed because it had “walked in the wrong path”.

If the new government also chose the wrong path, he warned, “we might have to work to change the government.”

Gauging public sentiment, the government withdrew the controversial regulations following a meeting attended by the Maldives Police Service, Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF), the Home Affairs Ministry, the Economic Development Ministry, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs and several religious scholars.

At the same time the government did not reinstate the old liquor licensing system, resulting in burgeoning black market prices for the commodity – the street price for a bottle of blackmarket vodka wholesaled outside the country for US$6 rose from Rf 700 (US$54) to Rf 2000 (US$160) with the demise of the licensing system.

State Minister for Islamic Affairs Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed said at the time that while there was scope for alcohol to be sold to non-Muslims in an Islamic state, alcohol was readily available to non-Muslims at resorts and the Hulhule Island Hotel (HIH) on the airport island.

“The tourism industry has sold alcohol [to non-Muslims] for a long time,” he explained. “But it is a concern to open bars in [wider Maldivian] society. Maldivians do not want to have bars near schools and mosques.”

Financial impact

The loss of potential liquor revenues drew speculation that the Holiday Inn would suffer financially.

Melzer said today that in his experience of managing the hotel for five months, “it has not affected us. We have very imaginative beverage menus that have been very successful, and there has not been a negative impact.”

The hotel was not in direct competition with the bar-equipped Hulhule Island Hotel (HIH), he said: “The main target of the hotel is corporate business and government travellers, and to a lesser extent the international wholesale market – particularly South Korea and Japan.”

The base business of the hotel was showing “very good progress” he said, with the main attraction “the high quality interior design, which is very luxurious and well received by international travellers from SE Asia and the Middle East. Another attraction is definitely the rooftop restaurant with its magnificent views and innovative dining concept.”

He acknowledged that one of the hotel’s key challenges “was attracting and retaining the right talent.”

“One of my areas of emphasis has been to localise positions,” he said, “but generally in the Maldives it is hard to attract local talent.”

Shangri-La, which already runs an upmarket resort property in Addu Atoll, has yet to announce its intentions for the rebranded hotel.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the Holiday Inn property was being sold together with the business. The property itself will remain with the present owner of the premises.

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BML ‘phishing’ website targets mobile banking customers

The Bank of Maldives (BML) yesterday issued a statement warning that fraudsters had created a false BML website to deceive the company’s mobile banking service customers, obtaining their bank account number, credit card number and its security code through the fraudulent website.

The fraudsters were inviting BML customers to their fraudulent website under the bankofmaldives.net domain by sending text messages from 00455, claiming it was a registration website for the BML mobile banking service.

The fraud, known as ‘phishing’, is relatively common in the Western world and many banks instruct their customers to never access their website by clicking a link in an email. Technology analyst group Gartner estimate that 3.6 million adults fell victim to such scams in the 12 months ending August 2007, losing US$3.2 billion in the process.

Since then phishing attacks have become markedly more targeted and refined, with the emergence of ‘spear-phishing’, with individual and high-value targets such as corporate account executives being targeted.

BML warned that if any of its customers filled this registration form displayed in the fraud website, the fraudsters will be able to take advantage of them and misuse the information.

The statement said that the mobile banking was a service provided by BML “with high security and confidentiality.”

However, it is the responsibility of the customers to keep confidential information such as their card number, expiration date, pin number and security code, account number, internet banking user ID and its security and password, said the statement.

The BML said the most common method fraudsters used was to obtain information to misuse credit cards and debit cards after obtaining the data by sending emails from sources trusted by the victim, linked to fraudulent sources.

The fraudulent website is designed to appear just like the legitimate website.

BML warned customers to never use a link to access the bank’s website, and recommended its address www.bankofmaldives.com.mv be typed directly into the browser.

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Group claims ‘2000 strong’ protest against Dhiraagu over privacy and latency concerns

A group of Maldivians calling themselves “Firaagu’’, led by Firaagu Mohamed, have scheduled a protest against the first network service provider in the Maldives, Dhiraagu (Dhivehi Raajjeyge Gulhun), claiming to have “many issues” with the company.

Protest organiser Firaagu Mohamed claimed that more than 2000 people have said they would join the protest.

“We are expecting 3000 to join us on the day of protest, January 1. We will launch a website and a hotline this month so that everyone joining can discuss and disclose more information about the protest,’’ said Firaagu.

Protesters will gather at Jumhoory Maidhaan and will march towards Dhiraagu Head Office in Medhuziyarai Magu, Firaagu said, claiming the group would also be distributing T-Shirts.

Firaagu, who claims to have obtained information concerning matters of privacy and latency from a whistleblower inside the company, say they will present their allegations in the lead up to the protest.

“We do not want our every move sniffed and monitored. And do not give us false messages when we try and call somebody by saying ‘The number you are calling is switched off’,” he alleged.

Outside the resorts, the country’s telecom providers are among the most marketed and media savvy organisations in the country, and desired employers among many young people.

Spokesperson for Dhiraagu Mohamed Mirshan yesterday told Minivan News that Dhiraagu had not received any information regarding the planned ‘Firaagu’ event officially.

”If anyone had any issues concerning Dhiraagu, they could always contact us,” Mirshan said. ”we are always easily accessible,” Mirshan said.

”Expressing peoples views on large companies through social network is very common in the Maldives as well as in other countries,”

Mirshan said if the protest was organised by a genuine person he would have contacted Dhiraagu before deciding to launch a protest.

“I have also seen the page on Facebook, and its credibility looks doubtful,” he added.

Dhiraagu is one of the only two network service providers in the Maldives, and has been providing telecom services for 22 years.

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Corruption Index ranks Maldives below Zimbabwe

The Maldives has been ranked 143 in Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Perception Index, equal with Pakistan and below Zimbabwe.

The ranking represents a fall of 15 places since the 2009 Index, which itself fell 15 places from the 2008 Index.

The Maldives is now ranked well below regional neighbours, including India (87), Sri Lanka (91) and Bangladesh (134). Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore ranked first, while Somalia ranked last at 178, below Burma and Afghanistan.

The Maldivian index was calculated using three different sources, explained Executive Director of Transparency Maldives, Ilham Mohamed. These were the Asian Development Bank’s Country Performance Index 2009, Global Insight’s Country Risk Report 2010, and the World Bank’s Country Policy and Institutional Assessment 2009.

“I think [the decline] reflects changes we are going through as a democracy – political instability is also considered when calculating the index,” Ilham said. “But this reflects the fact that the international community considers us more corrupt since 2008.”

Despite having a new constitution the Maldives does not have “the enabling legislation” in place to combat corruption, Ilham said. “We don’t even have a criminal code.”

She hesitated to say whether corruption was “a cultural problem”, because this was “a common justification in many Asian countries.”

“Nepotism is nepotism no matter where it happens,” Ilham said. “Howver it could be that the index reflects that practices such as patronage and gift-giving – which weren’t perceived as corrupt – are now beginning to be recognised as such.”

Corruption has maintained a high profile in the Maldives throughout 2010, most dramatically in July when recordings of phone conversations between MPs were leaked to the press. MPs were heard discussing plans to derail the taxation bill, implement no-confidence motions against ministers, buy someone called “Rose”, the Anti-Corruption Commission, and the exchange of “millions”.

People’s Alliances party (PA) leader Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom told Minivan News at the time that while a voice in the sound clips might have been his, the conversations were ”not to borrow money to bribe MPs… [rather] as friends, we might help each other,” he said.

Meanwhile, “I need cash”, a recorded comment from Independent MP Mohamed ‘Kutti’ Nasheed to an individual believed to be Jumhoree Party (JP) leader Gasim Ibrahim, quickly became something of a meme in the Maldives, with islanders in his constituency of Kulhudhufushi setting up a collections box on the beach.

However the debate quickly turned one of telecommunications legalities, with the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) issuing a statement condemning the recording of private phone calls.

Shortly afterwards parliament levelled a no-confidence motion at Education Minister Dr Mustafa Luthfy, the entire cabinet resigned in protest against the “scorched earth” tactics of the opposition majority parliament. The former ministers accused parliament of outright corruption and police arrested MPs Yameen and Gasim and charged them with treason and vote buying, for “attempting to topple the government illegally.”

Both were released when the Supreme Court overruled a decision by the High Court to hold the pair under house arrest for 15 days.

Police later that month arrested Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim, also of the PA, and ruling Maldivian Democratic Party MP Mohamed Musthafa on suspicion of bribing MPs and a civil court judge.

The Criminal Court ordered their release and several senior police lawyers giving evidence were suspended from court “on ethical grounds”.

Senior officers at the time expressed concern that investigations into “high-profile corruption cases” were compromised at “a very preliminary stage”, noting that the court had refused to even issue arrest warrants for a case involving more than a kilogram of heroin.

Police lodged that complaint with the Judicial Services Commission (JSC), which has yet to review any of the nearly 120 complaints it has received this year.

Earlier in the year Auditor General Ibrahim Naeem was also dismissed in a no-confidence motion by parliament shortly after demanding a financial audit of all ministers, past and present, including former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) found Naeem guilty of buying a tie and boat transport with government money, and he was summarily dismissed.

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