Former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and many of his cabinet ministers are seeking legal advice after Auditor General Ibrahim Naeem sent their names to the Prosecutor General’s office for failing to declare their assets.
Naeem claimed that former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and many of his ministers, as well as several members of the current government, had refused to provide a statement of their assets as required by Article 138 of the new Constitution.
The article requires every member of the Cabinet to “annually submit to the Auditor General a statement of all property and monies owned by him, business interests and all assets and liabilities.”
DRP member and spokesman for the former president, Mohamed ‘Mundhu’ Hussain Shareef, said the Auditor General’s request had “no legal weight under the new constitution”, and that Gayoom would be issuing a formal statement on the matter.
The Auditor General needs to update himself on the facts. He has obviously been discussing this from a comfy chair in Nasheed’s living room,” Mundhu said. “With his [alleged by the ACC] embezzelment of state funds, I think he has realised he is on borrowed time. He is clearly not fit to be in a position of responsibility and should go back to Singapore.”
Mundhu said the issue had “hijacked” parliament, and that the growing antagonism was becoming a political liability for President Mohamed Nasheed.
“Nasheed has good PR outside the country, but this time the audience is in town. He is not going to be able to fool a foreign audience – half the donor community is in town.”
“He can put up police barriers and turn Male’ into a police state, but will not get support from the people in return,” Mundhu said.
Independent MP and former Information Minister Mohamed Nasheed, also on the Auditor General’s list, said he believed there were numerous legal faults with the AG’s demands as new provisions in the Constitution did not apply to the interim ministers.
“There have been no rules or regulations regarding how assets should be declared, or cut off dates,” Nasheed said. “Article 138 of the constitution simply says that certain information relating to cabinet members must be disclosed, [a provision] that was formed under the new Constitution ratified on 7 August 2008.”
“There was no cut-off line mentioned. The former ministers were in government for three months and three days after the new constitution came into effect, and [the AG] requested submission of financial declaration in August 2009, nine months after we left office.”
Nasheed also said he had “no reason to believe” the Auditor General could demand such details from former ministers, as they had not been appointed or elected after the new consitution came into effect.
“He refers to section 20 of the audit law, which states he cannot be obstruct in the discharge of his function, but filing our financial declarations is not his function under the Constitution,” Nasheed said. “There is nothing saying he can demand compliance.”
The former ministers had also been sent forms by the AG “asking for more information required by Article 138,” Nasheed noted.
“I think he is a little unstable, and is firing any cannon at his disposal. He has crossed the line and become a politician himself.”
Nasheed said he was waiting for a decision by the Prosecutor General, but said that even if the PG decided to prosecute, he doubted the former ministers would be forthcoming with their cooperation: “No I don’t think they would. I certainly wouldn’t,” he said.
“I have been practicing as a lawyer for 15 years and I have never seen any demand so ridiculous.”
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Oh please Mr. Kutti Nasheed! You can twist a clearly written requirement in the constitution!! Just because you failed, you are trying to twist this??!! Come up with a better idea Mr. Kutti Proxy of DRP!
What right does Mundhu has to tell the AG to go back to Singapore? Very weird.
The fact that he mentioned that half the donor community was in town sounds very fishy, specially considering the current situation in the country.
right now, in this country everything is fishy. mdp's strong stance in protecting the ag is fishy. the way in which president himself asked a drp mp's help to resolve it is fishy. and drp,...hmm they have always been fishy. i am never gonna vote drp, not with its current leaders. and mdp? well, they are so engrossed in themselves they don't realise that for every member they gained they probably lost two voters. so many mistakes. only 25% of voting population are registered with parties, so don't be so sure. next earliest election i cant vote either of them. and if there isnt a suitable independent, my vote is gonna be a "bathil"! disappointed beyond words...
Mundu never Answers a question but attacks the messenger. and now the good old president wannabe nasheed wants to prove to his dump followers that the guys who ripped the Maldives and created slush funds everywhere should just go unchecked...what a world... the thieves are changing to daylight robbery
Mundhu and Kutti both dreamed of becoming president after the end of Maumoon.
Tsk tsk tsk..
@ Mr. Karma
It all depends on "Nassebu."
Why knows?
Tsk tsk tsk..
It seems that some proponents of MDP who have commented above could not digest the fact that this Auditor General has already failed his responsibilities and the public has already loosed the confidence on him specially about his integrity.
We all Maldivians should remember that we have worked so hard to bring true democracy to Maldives by ending Maumoons presidency. Democracy does not advocate violence. It promotes fierce debating and counter argument which would undoubtedly gives a favorable outcome to its citizen.
The accusation of Auditor General is not just a hearsay neither a suspicion. It has been confirmed by the Anti-corruption commission. The auditor general should be an epitome to the best practices of handling the government funds. Sadly, it has been proven that the government funds are embezzled by AG for his personal use. MDP should stop making false justification. The whole public is aware that he has embezzled state funds and this should be done by the president to eradicate the dirty corruption culture in Maldives. This needs to be done to take this nation to "Anneh Dhivehi Rajje". The world corruption ranking witness that Maldives is in a surge of corruption which is perilous to this tiny little nation.
obviously this is a ridiculous waste of everyone's time. AG has better things to do than get involuved in this tic for tack battles of the parties. Yes DRP ppl are in breach of law even by 90 days , they should be fined and lets move on, if this goes to court it will take years and from the perspective of law , they might even get away with it , ( since they took office and "swoe" they did not agree to terms and conditions of new constitution and therefore they dont have to comply. they were also not ministers under the new constitutions but "interrim ministers" till elections were held :S but still this is rather stupid isnt it ?
DRP members are crying about something puny compared to the amount of dollars their leaders robbed the country with, while in power. Gayyoom and his previous cabinet does not want to declare their assets as well. What is there to hide? It is not like we will be surprised. Im sure if any of them had a good job, they would have used a few hundred dollars of their business money for something or the other and replaced it with their own later. In business law, this is not right, but yet many do this and it is not a problem with them. But ofcourse this is the government, so when comparing this government and the previous one.. it is better if someone that is not from a corrupt party comes up with these accusations. It gives more weight to it if someone clean accuses the AG. But the ones that so far have been speaking non stop about this seem to have a history of wanting power.
By the way the current Auditor General was chosen by former president on the advice of his brother Yaamin. The then MDP members never voted for him in the parliament. So AG is a Yaamin man. what's more fishy?