Day: September 13, 2011

Criminal Court orders police to summon former Atolls Minister Abdulla Hameed

The Criminal Court has asked police to summon former Atolls Minister Abdulla Hameed to the Maldives under police custody to face corruption charges.

A court order issued last night requested police to summon 19 defendants whose cases have been stalled because they were out of the country.

Abdulla Hameed, brother of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and long-serving Speaker of Parliament, reportedly resides in Sri Lanka. In 2009, the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) pressed charges against Hameed for abuse of authority for financial gain to a third party.

A press statement by the Criminal Court noted that the order was made for the second time while a meeting was held with police on June 1, 2011 to discuss defendants at large.

The Criminal Court asked police to find Hameed in April 2011 and present him before the court after several hearings of the corruption case had to be cancelled.

Police said at the time that the Immigration Department had been instructed to hold Hameed’s passport should he ever return to the Maldives.

Police spokesperson Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam explained that when the court first requested police to summon Hameed in late 2009 he was not in the Maldives.

“But the court have not yet issued an arrest warrant or requested his arrest via Interpol,” Shiyam said in April. “His whereabouts remain unknown.”

In August 2009, police concluded an investigation into alleged corruption at the Atolls Ministry flagged in an audit report released earlier that year.

At a press conference on August 8, 2009, Chief Inspector Ismail Atheef exhibited numerous quotations, agreements, tender documents, receipts, forged bank statements and cheques implicating Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim, Eydhafushi MP Ahmed “Redwave” Saleem and Hameed  in a scam to defraud the ministry through fraudulent transactions.

Police investigations focused on three main points in the ministry’s audit report for 2007 and 2008: the purchase of mosque sound systems for over US$138,000; the purchase of 15,000 national flags for over US$110,000; and the purchase of 220 harbour lights at a cost of over US$151,000 from businesses with close ties to Nazim.

According to Atheef, Eydhafushi MP Ahmed “Redwave” Saleem, who was director of finance at the ministry, actively assisted the scam.

Atheef added that Mohamed Ali, an employee of Namira Engineering, and Abdulla Nashid, Nazim’s brother, further produced and signed bid documents.

Police said Hameed played a key role in the fraud by handing out bids without public announcements, making advance payments using cheques against the state asset and finance regulations, approving bid documents for unregistered companies and discriminatory treatment of bid applicants.

“In these cases, money laundering was involved,” Atheef said at the time. “I wouldn’t say money from these transactions was directly deposited to the accounts of Abdulla Hameed or Ahmed Saleem.

“Transactions take a long period. For example, I deposited five rufiyaa to an account, and from that account withdrew four rufiyaa as cash. Then deposit four rufiyaa to another account, by single denominations. A person who is looking at it from a distance would find it hard to trace.”

Conspiracy to defraud

Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim appeared in court last month to answer multiple counts of conspiracy to defraud the former Atolls Ministry. However the Criminal Court barred journalists from observing the trial.

Local daily Haveeru reported today that summons to the next trial date on September 29 was delivered to Nazim last night. The court had reportedly failed to hand over the chit to the People’s Alliance (PA) MP on eight occasions.

In November 2010, following the PGO’s decision to press charges, Hameed’s son and lawyer, Shaheen Hameed, issued a press statement arguing that the case was “politically motivated”.

Shaheen accused the PGO of double standards claiming that “people who confessed to the crime and gave statements to police regarding this case have not been prosecuted to date.”

In an earlier statement put out in October, Shaheen Hameed said his father was “ready to fully answer the charges made against him at trial.”

The prominent lawyer argued in the statement that there was no impediment from carrying out the trial in Hameed’s absence as his legal team was “ready to defend him.”

He added that both the police and PGO denied “repeated requests” for government documents related to the case, which were needed to prepare a defence.

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Details lacking in government expenditure statement: DRP

The first of weekly government expenditure and income statements made public by the Ministry of Finance and Treasury this week lacks detail and does not serve to promote transparency, contends the main opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP).

DRP MP Dr Abdulla Mausoom, also a member of the parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, told Minivan News today that the party “welcomed” the government following through on its pledge to publicise government expenditure on a weekly basis.

“But half the truth is often more deceptive than lies,” he said. “First of all, there were no details in the statement. It was just categorised expenditure without any detail of the expenditure.”

While the Health Ministry has spent Rf744 million (US$48 million) this year, said Mausoom, “we don’t know what the money was spent for or where it went.”

“The whole health sector was corporatised,” he said. “But basic health services have not improved. There is a lack of equipment or facilities that need to be renewed and there’s always talk of how more doctors are needed.”

DRP Deputy Leader Ahmed ‘Andey’ Mohamed meanwhile explained that if a household servant was given Rf100 for shopping and asked to provide details of expenditure “for him to say I spent Rf50 at shop A, Rf30 at shop B and Rf20 at shop C does not mean he provided any details of what he bought.”

Citizens should be made aware of details of expenditure and the services provided with public funds, he added.

One of the “main areas of concern”, said Dr Mausoom, was Rf1.9 billion (US$123 million) spent out of the Finance Ministry’s contingency budget.

“That is almost Rf2 billion. Where did that money go?” he asked, adding that reduced amounts from civil servants salaries that the government was ordered to pay back by the courts had not been released.

The DRP MP for Kelaa also questioned whether the Rf489 million (US$31.7 million) released to state-owned enterprises so far this year could be categorised as “investment.”

A number of “dodgy companies” were dealing with domestic corporations, such as regional utilities and health corporations, he continued, and planning for “unfeasible business projects” with surveys and Memorandums of Understanding.

“A lot of cost would be incurred for that and it can’t really be considered investments,” he argued, revealing that there were 62 government-owned corporations.

Moreover, as a footnote of the expenditure and income summary stated that the figures were taken from reports that “have not been reconciled or audited,” Dr Mausoom suggested that “the numbers are likely to be understated” and subject to change.

“So there are a lot of unanswered questions,” he said. “But it is good that this has been made public because we are able to raise these issues. If the government wants to dispel all doubts, they should provide full details down to the last laari, which won’t be that hard to do.”

Finance Minister Ahmed Inaz was not responding at the time of press.

Deficit spending

Meanwhile among the highest spending line ministries and institutions were the Education Ministry with Rf1.2 billion (US$77.8 million), the Home Ministry with Rf751 million (US$48 million), Housing Ministry with Rf652 million (US$42 million) and local councils with Rf359 million (US$23 million).

According to the statement put out by the Finance Ministry, government expenditure (Rf7.5 billion) outstripped revenue (Rf6.3 billion) by 20 percent between January 1 and September 8, 2011.

As a consequence, the fiscal deficit reached Rf1.3 billion (US$84 million) at the end of last week.

In addition to Rf3.2 billion (US$207.5 million) spent on salaries and allowances for state employees – the single largest source of expenditure – Rf2.4 billion (US$155.6 million) was needed to cover recurrent expenditure or administrative costs.

Capital expenditure was meanwhile Rf1.2 billion (US$77.8 million) while spending on debt service reached Rf563 million (US$36.5 million).

DRP Deputy Leader Ahmed Mohamed observed that capital expenditure – capital outlays for local component of development projects, fixed assets maintenance and investments for state-owned enterprises – was “only 17 percent of the budget” while recurrent expenditure was over 75 percent.

In December 2010, parliament approved a Rf12.37 billion (US$802 million) annual state budget with a projected revenue of Rf8.8 billion (US$570.7 million) and recurrent expenditure of Rf9.8 billion (US$635.6 million) – 49 percent of which was to be spent on salaries and allowances.

The forecast for recurrent expenditure was 79 percent of government spending.

In March this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that “significant policy slippages” have undermined the country’s ability to address its unsustainable budget deficit.

“On the expenditure side, there have been no net fiscal savings from public employment restructuring, public sector wages will be restored to their September 2009 levels earlier than expected, and the new Decentralisation and Disability Bills will lead to considerable spending increases,” the IMF noted in a statement.

The IMF said that while it recognised “the difficult political situation facing the authorities”, “decisive and comprehensive adjustment measures” were required to stabilise the economy, allow sustainable growth and reduce poverty. In particular, it raised concern about the “lack of significant progress in public employment restructuring.

Dr Mausoom meanwhile insisted that as government revenue was expected to exceed previous forecasts because of new tax revenue and reach almost Rf10 billion (US$648.5 million), “the deficit should be reduced by a corresponding amount to the boost in income.”

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No speedboat available near Huraa after drowning incident, say police

No speedboat was available near Huraa following the drowning of four students and principal of Hiriya School, Police Chief Inspector Abdulla Nawaz told media today.

Police were informed of the incident at 9:48am in the morning and the police duty officer immediately called the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF), and was informed that MNDF officers were on it, Nawaz said.

The four female students and the principal of ‘Hiriya’ drowned while on a fisheries science study trip. Police and MNDF were called immediately but were criticised for being unable to reach the island until long after the incident.

About an hour after the drownings, the bodies of the students and principal were brought to Male’ on a speedboat from nearby Four Season Kuda Hura resort.

Speaking in a press conference, Nawaz said that information of the incident was passed to the police station on the island of Himmafushi, approximately 3 km from Hura.

Nawaz said that Himmafushi Police Station’s Head tried to hire a speedboat from the island but because it was Friday morning, no speedboats were available.

He said police then called the Island Council of Hura and requested they make a request to Four Seasons Kuda Hura resort, the council had already done so.

Nawaz said that although the police could not arrive to the island on time, it was to be noted that police went to the jetty in Male’ and received the bodies, and carried them to the hospital.

Nawaz also said that police were still investigating the incident and had not been able to question any students who witnessed the incident, as they were traumatised and not ready to talk about it.

Meanwhile, today the parliament’s ”241′ Security Services Committee summoned Police Commissioner Ahmed Faseeh and Chief of Defence Force Major General Moosa Ali Jaleel to question them about the lateness in providing service of the forces when called for help.

Newly-formed Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) MP and Media Coordinator Ahmed Nihan told Minivan News that Faseeh and Moosa were summoned to the committee to clarify the truth of the various accusations that the forces had neglected their duty.

“Nawaz failed to tell the media how long it took the police to reach the island, and he has not answered queries made by the journalists,” he said. “That’s why it was important to sit down with them and clarify the media reports and other allegations on police.”

Nihan said that this was a national issue but “the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MPs disrupted the meeting today and the meeting had to be cancelled.”

He alleged that the government had poorly treated the family of the only girl who survived in the incident, Hawwa Ali, by asking them to pay her medical bills for the first two days.

“But the girl happens to be in my constituency and I called government senior officials and requested them to do it a better way, and now I think it is arranged and the government is assisting the family with everything,” he claimed.

Nihan said that the girl’s family had requested the government to move her to another ward because she was currently in the children’s ward at IGMH and the sound of children cry was making her recall the incident.

“She was the only person who saw everything, she heard the children crying for help, she saw the girls drowning right in front of her,” Nihan said.

Hawwa was a friend of Aishath Shaniha, who died in the incident. Hawwa almost drowned but was rescued by the school principal and was holding a rope while the principal attempted to rescue the other students that were drowning.

Nihan claimed that police “would have had 20 speedboats in the islands” during the former government.

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“Don’t marginalise Sri Lanka”: Nasheed to Human Rights Council

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has submitted a report documenting alleged war crimes in the closing days of the Sri Lankan Civil War to the UN Human Rights Council.

The report accuses the Sri Lankan military of killing tens of thousands of civilians through shelling in the closing days of its war with Tamil separatists, and increases the likelihood that the Human Rights Council may be called on to vote for a full international, independent investigation.

Sri Lanka has meanwhile rejected the report’s findings and stated that it opposes an outside investigation. Instead, the government has appointed its own ‘Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’ (LLRC), which is expected to publish its findings on November 15.

Central to the UN’s case is graphic footage of the execution of bound and gagged prisoners, which the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Christof Heyns, described as reflecting “crimes of the highest order — definitive war crimes.”

Heyns analysed the video in consultation with a forensic pathologist, firearms expert and two forensic video analysts, and concluded that the footage was authentic, however the Sri Lankan government has maintained that the video is fake.

It has also stated that civilian casualties were unavoidable during the final offensive, due to the Tamil Tigers’ use of 300,000 people as human shields.

As an outspoken member of the UN Human Rights Council and a vocal proponent of intervention during the Libyan uprising – and also Sri Lanka’s neighbour – the situation is likely to challenge the Maldives diplomatically.

Yesterday, as the international community was ratcheting up the pressure on Sri Lanka, President Mohamed Nasheed called for an “amicable solution”.

“As long as we argue about Sri Lanka, the government is increasingly marginalised and we are losing the government and the country outside the fold of the international community,” Nasheed warned.

“We must understand that a number of very, very bad things happened but we must be able to move forward,” he said.

Current Maldivian Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem has previously described the UN report as “singularly counterproductive”, while during a recent interview with Minivan News, former Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed said he felt the government’s position on Sri Lanka “has been misunderstood”, particularly its comparison with the government’s stance on Libya.

“But I think Naseem’s comments and the government’s position on Sri Lanka have been misunderstood. The Libyan situation is different from the current situation in Sri Lanka. Libya is ongoing – things are happening today on the ground, and we need to try to prevent further abuses tomorrow,” he said at the time.

“In Sri Lanka’s case these are post-conflict issues. What we say is that the most important thing in a post-conflict situation is to find a way forward and not live in the past. This does not mean we are condoning abuses, or saying such things are fine. But Sri Lanka needs to find common ground with the UN Human Rights Council in which both parties can move forward. The government of Sri Lanka needs to be able to enter into dialogue with the international community to achieve speedier reconciliation.

“You can’t have reconciliation and long-lasting peace unless you respect human rights and set up mechanisms to do so. But we should steer clear of politicisation, or the divisions that have kept the flame of terrorism alive in Sri Lanka for so long. We are saying let Sri Lanka find a way forward and achieve reconciliation – we are not saying we don’t care about the past,” Dr Shaheed said.

China and Pakistan have also expressed support for Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile Mahinda Samarasinghe, Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa’s special envoy on human rights, has called for the international community to wait for the findings of Sri Lanka’s own commission in November.

“It is disconcerting to note the haste with which some have sought to usurp the government of Sri Lanka’s prerogative in deciding its domestic process,” Samarasinghe has previously told the Council.

“We firmly believe that our home-grown process is capable of addressing the nuances of our unique situation.”

However several international human rights organisations, including International Crisis Group (ICG), Human Rights Watch (HRW), and Amnesty International (AI) have refused to appear before the LLRC claiming it fails to meet minimum international standards, noting that its members were appointed by the government, it had no mandate to investigate war crimes in the closing days of the conflict, and lacked any mechanism to protect witnesses.

“The LLRC’s mandate, its composition, its procedures, and the human rights environment in which it is operating all conspire to make a safe and satisfactory outcome for victims of human rights violations and their families extremely unlikely,” said Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Asia-Pacific region, Madhu Malhotra, in October 2010.

“Amnesty International is particularly concerned about the lack of any provisions for witness protection and the fact that former officials who have publicly defended the Sri Lankan government against allegations of war crimes serve on the commission.”

Warning: some readers may find the following footage disturbing

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Conflicting reports of dengue alert issued by Health Ministry

State Health Minister Abdul Bari Abdulla was unable to confirm whether the ministry had issued dengue alert today.

Earlier today, Haveeru reported that the Health ministry had issued a warning over a recurring dengue outbreak in the Maldives. Hospitals have seen an increase in the number of reported and admitted dengue cases over the last three weeks.

The report stated that heavy rains are sustaining mosquito breeding activities, and that Maldivians should be aware of the increased risk of contracting the illness.

An outbreak in July made 2011 the worst year for dengue fever on record with 11 fatalities since January.

A task force headed by Deputy Minister of Education, Dr. Abdullah Nazeer, was appointed to handle the outbreak. The Ministry of Health did not assume control of the situation for a week after the outbreak began.

At the time, Dr Nazeer told Minivan News that the government faced two obstacles in its response to the outbreak.

“Number one is a lack of proper communication between the Health Ministry and local councils,” he said. “The second was that they did not have the capacity to resolve the issues.”

In 2006, dengue claimed ten lives. This year’s earlier outbreak fatality rate surpassed that record when a 22-year old man died in late July. A 37-year old Indian national also died of dengue fever that month.

The ministry said 2421 cases were reported in August this year, Haveeru reports.


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MACI Build Expo positive about construction “boom”

The Maldives Association of Construction Industry’s (MACI) annual exhibition concluded today at the Dharubaaruge Centre in Male’, after enduring three days of gloomy weather and a lower-than-expected turnout.

The annual event showcased over twenty construction companies and their newly developed or imported products. Sales people interviewed said that the event was a significant business opportunity each year, and that sales were expected to improve.

“Every year we are introducing new products,” said Ali Shaathir of MUNI Homecare. “These products have a good impact on construction–they are safer, and friendly to the environment.”

Veligaa Hardware representative Muaz Mohamed said that construction would continue to “boom” in the Maldives. “You can always see construction on Male, and Hulumale is just beginning to boom,” he said.

Other companies represented included Humaru Maldives, Polytechnic Maldives, Thilafalhu Industrial Zone, and Habitat. Several observed that resort construction played a significant role in the industry.

One construction sector said to interest resorts is renewable energy. Earlier this week, President Mohamed Nasheed told an international audience in London that the Maldives needs to become carbon neutral.

Renewable Energy Maldives (REM) representative Maufooz Abdullah said that although eco-construction isn’t prominent, it is growing. “People are actually interested here and in resorts, and some are even buying our products,” he said.

REM currently sells solar-hybrid air conditioning units to residents and businesses around the country. These units recover their cost in two years, and are said to be used across Male. Abdullah said that use of REM products could reduce pollution “by 30 to 60 percent”.

“We hope environmentally friendly construction practices grow in the Maldives, it’s catching on slowly but we hope it moves faster.”

Abdullah said the MACI exhibition was valuable to the industry, but wished more people would benefit from it.

“I think it’s a very important event for educating people about the industry, but I don’t see too many people coming in.”

Maldives Income Revenue Authority (MIRA) said that construction was important to the Maldivian economy. Representatives noted, however, that the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill, due to become active on 2 October, will “have an effect on wholesale and customer prices.”

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