Tag: acc

ACC to investigate two subsidiary companies registered under BML

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had said it will investigate two subsidiary companies registered under Bank of Maldives (BML).

ACC President Hassan Luthfy told local media that BML has been notified to halt operations of both the BML Properties Limited and BML Investment Limited.

Luthfy said the company has at present failed to provide documents on the two subsidiaries that it had requested, local media reported.

“We have been informed of problems related to the two companies through the media, and investigations are under way,” he was quoted as saying.

“Complaints include the issue of the chairman holding shares in the company, and the issue of efforts to manage mortgaged property instead of selling them as ordered by the court. Some people have also complained saying that their mortgages have been sold, and that their cases were not dealt with in the same manner.”

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Finance Ministry not working to recover funds lost through state incompetence: AG

The Finance Ministry has not been working to recover lost funds from the state, Auditor General Niyaz Ibrahim has alleged.

Speaking to local media, Niyaz said  the state treasury has suffered huge losses due to incompetence from state employees.

Despite audit reports revealing where money has been wrongly spent, Finance Ministry has not been working to recover the funds, Niyaz told local media.

“We are sending a copy of the audit reports from each institution to the Finance Ministry. We recommend the finance ministry to take action against them in which the ministry is involved.

“However there has not been enough work towards taking action against them, especially in the cases where the incompetence of some employees and other loss,” Niyaz was quoted as saying in local newspaper Haveeru.

The Auditor General said that transactions made against the state finance act and violations of travel procedures in government offices were common issues repeated in the audit reports.

Niyaz added that as some offices are repeating these mistakes, there will be a period of three months whereby the offices have to improve prior to an assessment at the end of the time period.

Cases of incompetence or deliberate acts of fraud resulting in losses of state funds are also being submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) by the Auditor General, according to local media.

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Human traffickers sabotaging border control deal: Nexbis

The Malaysian IT company at the center of legal wrangling over a deal to provide a border control system (BCS) to the Maldivian government has alleged “criminal elements” could be behind efforts to scupper the agreement.

Vice President for Nexbis Nafies Aziz told Minivan News that “intelligence” received by the company suggested groups backing the country’s lucrative human trafficking industry could be seeking to stymie the introduction of its BCS to undermine national security controls.

The comments were made following an appeal hearing held at the country’s Supreme Court on January 9 to block an unanimous vote by parliament to terminate Nexbis’ agreement with the government over allegations of “foul play”.

The country’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) said that regardless of its concerns about human trafficking in the Maldives, a case regarding the Nexbis’ deal had been submitted to the Prosecutor General (PG’s) Office under the previous government.

Meanwhile, a source with knowledge of the present immigration and border control system said that should parliament’s termination decision be upheld, the Immigration Department would be returning to “a pen and paper system” for monitoring arrivals to the country.

The Maldives has come under strong criticism internationally in recent years for the prevalence of people trafficking, and the  country has appeared on the US State Department’s Tier Two Watch List for Human Trafficking for three years in a row.

In a statement to Minivan News, Nexbis Vice President Aziz said that the company was now awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision concerning its appeal hearing on January 9.

“The ACC in the previous Supreme Court hearing submitted that there was no implication on Nexbis or any corruption whatsoever in the contracting state of the Border Control System project,” he said. “The Border Control System is fully implemented and is operational in Male’ International Airport.”

Responding to allegations of wrong-doing in its signing of a border control agreement with the Maldives government, Aziz alleged that “criminal elements supporting human trafficking” had been identified through its “intelligence” as potentially funding a campaign to halt its agreement.

“Stakeholders across the political spectrum have in the recent past all highlighted the growth of human trafficking in the Maldives and pointed out to hundreds of millions of dollars of illegal gains made by the criminal elements behind the growth of human trafficking in the Maldives who stand to lose out the most from the full implementation of the Maldives Immigration Border Control System,” he claimed. “To that end, as the public can clearly see, there is an elaborate amount of money that is being spent to campaign against the Border Control System and the security it will bring to the country.”

Aziz also contended that any attempts to weaken border controls in the country would only serve detrimental to the nation due to not only an “influx of illegal immigrants to the country,” but also the nation’s international standing.

“In addition to this, the Maldives has been on the US State Department’s Tier 2 Watch List for Human Trafficking for three years running now and may possibly be re-classified this year into Tier 3, which is the worst category, if proper controls and systems are not put in place,” he said.

“The implications are far reaching and would again impact the people of Maldives as countries around the world begin imposing stringent visa requirements on Maldivians.”

Aziz said it had become “imperative” for Maldives’ national security that supposed efforts by human traffickers to sabotage its agreement did not succeed.

“The full implementation and operation of the Nexbis BCS will undoubtedly help curb issues of human trafficking, identity fraud as well as weak enforcement controls. The Border Control System encompasses a total end-to-end solution for a Build, Operate, Transfer (BOT) contract term as stipulated by the National Planning Council,” he said.

“This is a proven and internationally certified system, and shall provide the required border control capabilities including foreign worker management and mobile enforcement features, which will increase the efficiency of the current immigration processes. The biometric capabilities of the system are certified to be of the highest performance worldwide for speed and accuracy,” he said.

Immigration Controller Dr Mohamed Ali was not responding to calls at the time of press.

However, a source with knowledge of the current immigration and emigration system – who asked not to be identified – told Minivan News that border control authorities were facing “lots of problems” in performing their function. These problems were said to have arisen due to ongoing wrangling over the Nexbis deal.

While not wishing to comment on Nexbis’ allegations of possible criminal involvement in efforts to halt the project, the source claimed that a failure to implement a BCS like that being offered by the Malaysia-based firm would “strengthen the hand” of human traffickers operating in and out of the country.

The source said that the biometric systems included within Nexbis’ system were a step towards curbing a common practice of returning illegal immigrants – in some cases with criminal convictions – to the Maldives under new identities.

With the Supreme Court yet to decide on the legality of parliament’s decision to terminate the Nexbis agreement, Minivan News understands the company’s BCS is still being used at Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA) to screen arrivals.

However, the source said that Nexbis technical staff who had implemented the border system had been removed from the project, meaning that any bugs or issues with the technology were unable to be resolved.

“We need the system to capture biometric details from passengers in cases where people are changing names. This would make it impossible to create false passport under separate names as people are doing right now,” the source said.

The same source also said the automated system would allow authorities to run background checks on passengers on incoming flights.

A decision to uphold parliament’s decision to cancel the Nexbis agreement – a stance the government has said it will honour – would see immigration officials having to use “a pen and paper system” for monitoring immigration, the source claimed.

ACC view

The MVR 500 million (US$39 million) BCS project moved ahead last year after a series of high-profile court battles and delays that led Nexbis to last year threaten legal action against the Maldivian government should it incur losses for the work already done on the project.

The Malaysia-based mobile security provider has come under scrutiny by political parties who claim that the project is detrimental to the state, while the Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) has alleged corruption in the bidding process.

Despite Nexbis’ claims that “no implication” of corruption had been registered by the ACC, the corruption commission’s President Hassan Luthfee said his department would only have previously sent a case to the PG’s Office if it held concerns with the agreement.

However, Luthfee also conceded his department had been made aware of issues regarding human trafficking in and out of the country.

“We have received complaints about people smuggling to the country, but we have not been able to start an investigation as the size of such a case is beyond our capacity,” he claimed, adding that the ACC was not tasked to investigate such matters.

“This is just too big a case. [For example] there have been some claims that ships from Sri Lanka and India are travelling to the Maldives around 20 kilometres from Male’ and transferring people to fishing vessels, and from there they are distributed as laborers across the country. These are reports I have received.”

Migrant concerns

Speaking on January 13 at a ceremony to celebrate National Day, President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik stated the Maldives was being “forced” to take measures against changes to the “national character” due to the rising number of migrant workers in the country.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs earlier this month inaugurated an initiative targeted at raising awareness of the human trafficking issue in the Maldives.

The strategy, entitled ‘Blue Ribbon Campaign Against Human Trafficking’ is expected to include activities to try and raise awareness among students and the business community.

The Foreign Ministry announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with multiple local media outlets in the country as part of the campaign’s aim to raising awareness of human trafficking and other related issues.

Meanwhile, late last year, Indian authorities told Minivan News that tightened restrictions on providing medical visas to Maldivians was a “signal” for the country’s government to address a number of concerns about the nation’s treatment of migrant workers.

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ACC to investigate Club Faru Resort complaints

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is to investigate whether Club Faru Resort employees were hired without being told of a change in management, local media reports.

Earlier this month, the Tourism Ministry took over the resort from its present owners following the expiry of its lease agreement and handed control to the government-owned Maldives Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC).

President of ACC Hassan Luthfy told local media that while no case had been filed to the commission in writing regarding Club Faru, the ACC was investigating due to the complaints received from “various groups” in relation to the resort.

“The major complaint we have received is that the government operates the resort using its previous employees, and that they were given employment without making the necessary announcements. These kinds of complaints, we are looking into them,” he said.

Tourism Minister Ahmed Adheeb told Minivan News that the resort would be closed within two months as part of the government’s plan to begin the second phase of “reclaiming” Hulhumale’ this year.

“The resort is to be operated by a government company for two months and it will then be closed down and reclaimed.
“It was a seven year lease that expired on November 15,” he said earlier this month. “Now the government has decided to reclaim that part of Hulhumale’.”

Adheeb told Minivan News that the resort would be closed as part of the government’s plans to begin the second phase of “reclaiming” Hulhumale’ this year.

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ACC files ADC case with Prosecutor General’s Office

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has filed a case with the Prosecutor General’s (PG) Office today over the decision to allow infrastructure group GMR to deduct a court-blocked Airport Development Charge (ADC) from concession fees owed to the state.

The deducted concession fees were to have been paid to the state-owned Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL).

As part of the filed case (Dhivehi), the ACC is seeking reimbursement of MVR 353.8 million (US$22.9 million) from former MACL Chair Ibrahim ‘Bandhu’ Saleem and former Finance Minister Mohamed Shihab over the alleged misuse of authority it claimed had led to significant financial loses for the state.

The ADC issue had been a key point of contention between GMR and the administration of President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik before his government opted last month to void a sovereign agreement with the India-based infrastructure group to develop and manage Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA).

When contacted by Minivan News today, a PG’s Office spokesperson confirmed that the ACC case had been received, but could not provide any further details on the matter while its investigations were taking place.

The spokesperson claimed that under normal procedure, whether a case was submitted from an institution like the ACC or the Maldives Police Service, the PG’s Office would review all details before deciding whether to move ahead with a prosecution.

ACC case

According to the case filed by the ACC, former Finance Minister Shihab stands accused of misusing his ministerial authority to benefit a third party by allowing GMR to deduct the ADC and insurance charges from concession fees it owed MACL between October 2011 and September 2012.

Shihab was not responding to calls from Minivan News at time of press.

The ACC has also accused former MACL Head Saleem of allowing GMR to deduct the ADC through a consent letter signed in violation of the company’s rules. According to the ACC’s case, normal procedure for MACL would be to have the company’s Board of Directors pass a resolution allowing for consent to be given to deduct the ADC.

Airport Development Charge

In late 2011, the then-opposition Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) filed a successful Civil Court case blocking GMR from charging an ADC – a US$25 charge for outgoing passengers stipulated in its concession agreement with the government – on the grounds that it was a tax not authorised by parliament.

Former President Mohamed Nasheed’s administration chose to honour the original contract, and instructed GMR to deduct the ADC revenues from the concession fees due to the government through state-owned MACL, while it sought to appeal the Civil Court ruling.

However, the Nasheed government fell a month later and the opposition inherited the result of its court victory, receiving a succession of bills from the airport developer throughout 2012, despite the government’s insistence that the January 5 letter from MACL outlining the arrangement was no longer valid.

In the first quarter of 2012, the government received US$525,355 of an expected US$8.7 million, after the deduction of the ADC. That was followed by a US$1.5 million bill for the second quarter, after the ADC payable eclipsed the revenue due to the government.

Combined with the third quarter payment, the government at the time of the GMR contract termination owed the airport developer US$3.7 million.

GMR attempted to compromise by offering to exempt Maldivian nationals from the ADC.

The offer was claimed to have had been personally mailed by GMR Chairman G M Rao to President Waheed. However, GMR later claimed to have received no response from the government on the matter.

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Decision on future of waste management project expected within a week: State Minister Matheen

A decision over whether to cancel a contract with India-based Tatva Global Renewable Energy for the provision of a waste management system in the Male’ area will be taken by the Environment Ministry this week, according to local media.

A final decision on the contract – which was last month in the process of renegotiation between the current government and Tatva Global Renewable Energy – is expected to be taken within the next five days, State Minister for Environment and Energy Abdul Matheen Mohamed has reportedly confirmed.

Matheen claimed Monday (December 25) that final discussions with the company were set to take place over whether the ministry would seek to scrap the contract, Local newspaper Haveeru has reported.

Former President Mohamed Nasheed’s administration signed the original waste management agreement with Tatva in May 2011 in a deal that was supposed to have generated power from recycling waste. The scheme was also said to be part of attempts to improve the overall standards of waste management in Male’ and the nearby “garbage island”, Thilafushi.

The deal, like the airport development agreement with India-based GMR declared void by the government last month, was been backed by International Finance Corporation (IFC), an affiliate organisation of the World Bank, according to the Inter Press Service news agency.

However, parts of the agreement were ordered halted by the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in August this year over alleged concerns about the contract approved by the former government.

The ACC received concerns that the project would lead to an anticipated loss of MVR 1 billion (US$64.8 million) in government finances over a 20 year operating period, according to local news reports at the time.

“Mutually beneficial”

Environment Minister Dr Mariyam Shakeela announced earlier this month that discussions were taking place as to whether the previous contract agreed with Tatva could be replaced with a more “mutually beneficial” agreement.

“Provided they perform within the time frame given, the contract will remain with Tatva,” she said in response to whether the company would retain its role on the waste management project.

However, Male’ City Council (MCC) has criticised the renegotiation attempts, accusing the state of trying to sabotage the agreement outright for political gain.

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Deputy Speaker Nazim slams prosecutor general over work rate on corruption cases

Deputy Speaker and People’s Alliance (PA) MP Ahmed Nazim has claimed Prosecutor General (PG) Ahmed Muizzu had failed to either come to a decision on or forward to court some 72 percent of cases submitted to his office by the Maldives’ Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

The criticisms levelled by Nazim, who was cleared earlier this year of several corruption charges, were dismissed by PG Muizzu as being inaccurate.

Nazim’s criticisms were raised today during a parliamentary debate on the Anti-Corruption Bill submitted by independent MP Mohamed Nasheed.

“We are seeing that regardless of how much we empower the ACC, the cases they complete through investigation often are blocked from reaching the courts,” Nazim stated, while also pointing out the importance of further empowering the ACC.  “As found recently by the Public Finance Committee, 72 percent of the cases submitted to the PG Office by ACC in the past three years remain unattended on the PG’s desk. The PG has neither submitted these to the courts, nor shared his decisions on them.”

Nazim also criticised the appointment of people allegedly involved in ongoing corruption cases to senior government posts.

“Because the cases [in which these individuals are allegedly involved] are not getting prosecuted, they are getting more opportunities to continue with their corrupt actions. I therefore think it is important for us to amend the PG Act once we pass this current bill. We need to define a duration within which the PG must decide on cases submitted to his office. If we want to eradicate corruption, we cannot allow the PG to keep cases untouched on his desk in this manner,” Nazim said, criticizing Muizzu’s performance in office.

“Unless the corrupt are tried in courts and given due penalties, they will not be reluctant to continue with their acts of corruption.”

“Honourables in parliament will know most about corruption”: MP Mohamed Rasheed

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Mohamed Rasheed criticized fellow elected officials, stating that the “Honourables in parliament will know most about corruption”, going on to detail some of the corruption allegations that have been raised against individual MPs during the 17th People’s Majlis.

Rasheed also raised a procedural point while Nazim was speaking, saying he was very happy that “the most corrupt man in the Maldives is talking about the anti-corruption bill.”

The procedural point was overruled by Parliamentary Speaker Abdulla Shahid.

Rasheed further criticized Nazim, saying: “He is the man who raised the pay of all the judges, gave them above a MVR 100,000. How can we stop corruption when the chair of the Public Finance Committee has thrown all our judges into corruption?  Some people who are infamous in the line of corruption are part of this 17th People’s Majlis as ‘honourables’, and this has broadened the chances of corruption.”

MP Ahmed Nazim had four cases of corruption against him, all of which concerned public procurement tenders of the former Atolls Ministry secured through fraudulent documents and paper companies. By February 23rd, the Criminal Court cleared Nazim from all corruption charges, stating at the time that evidence submitted to prove the allegations against him was “not enough to criminalise.”

Meanwhile, ACC Vice President Muaviz Rasheed today stated that issue of cases being delayed at the PG Office was a standing issue, adding that the commission had not calculated any specific percentages regarding workload.

“There are some major corruption cases that are getting delayed, including the border control case and the Disaster Management Centre case,” Rasheed said.

“Perhaps it is just a matter of lack of resources. Probably all the institutions are just facing similar setbacks,” Rasheed added.

Meanwhile, Prosecutor General Ahmed Muizzu told Minivan News that he did not believe that the percentage rate of the number of cases sent in by the ACC left unattended by his office was as significant as 72 percent.

“The majority of the cases sent to the PG’s Office comes from the police. Less than one percent of this amount is sent by the ACC, the Police Integrity Commission, Customs or other institutions. By December 20, we have closed 75 percent of all the cases that have been submitted here, meaning we have either rejected or sent them to court.”

“Of course, there might be some cases submitted by the ACC among the pending cases, but I don’t believe it would amount to as much as 72 percent,” Muizzu said.

Muizzu added that sometimes “different aspects of the investigation” were submitted to the PG’s office for review.  He said that in such instances, his office would neither formally reject or close the cases.

“We do not lag behind compared to other institutions dealing with criminal justice,” Muizzu said.

MP Ahmed Nazim was not responding to calls at the time of press.

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Deputy Minister paid salary with no record of attendance, Tourism Ministry audit report reveals

A Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture was paid salary and allowances from April 2011 to January 2012 with no official records of attendance, the ministry’s audit report for 2011 has revealed.

The audit report (Dhivehi) made public on Tuesday stated that a total of MVR 343,351 (US$22,267) was paid to the senior official for 10 months while there was no documentation to show that he “ever attended either the ministry or any office functioning under the ministry.”

The Auditor General recommended recovering the funds and taking action against the responsible staff at the ministry.

While there was no specific regulation governing attendance of political appointees at the time, the Auditor General contended that paying salaries without attendance records was against “the spirit of the public finance regulations.”

In addition, the audit discovered that the ministry gave a temporary license or authorisation to a private company to operate a tourist hotel at the Laamu atoll Kadhdhoo airport in violation of the Tourism Act.

The audit found that the permission was given despite an inspection report finding that the facility did not meet the criteria for a tourist guesthouse in terms of quality of service.

A tourist hotel is ranked higher than a guesthouse, the audit report noted.

Under articles 4, 18 and 19 of the tourism law, the report explained, a tourist hotel could not be operated on the plot at the regional airport.

The hotel was however operated from May 24, 2011 to December 25, 2011 before official permission or a permanent license was sought, the audit report noted.

Local media reported yesterday (November 28) that the guesthouse or hotel was operated by Heavy Load Maldives, a family business of MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik, chairperson of the formerly ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

The Auditor General recommended submitting the case to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for further investigation.

Minivan News is seeking comment from former Tourism Minister Dr Mariyam Zulfa.

The audit report also noted that temporary authorisation or licenses for operating guesthouses were renewed “some times for over a year” while the facilities did not meet the requisite criteria.

Moreover, registration and licenses were provided to some dive centres and guesthouses without collecting registration and licensing fees.

In other cases highlighted in the report, the audit noted that documentation was not properly maintained for equipment such as camera and mobile phones purchased in 2010.

As a result, equipment provided for use by staff was not recovered when the employees left the office.

In addition, the Tourism Ministry did not maintain a detailed income registry with reference numbers and dates as required by the public finance regulations. The regulations require that the registry must be routinely shared with the Finance Ministry.

“However, inquiries for the Ministry of Tourism’s 2011 audit revealed that such a record [of income] was not prepared and maintained,” the audit report stated. “As a result, we note that it could not be confirmed whether the incomes due to the ministry was received in full.”

Offices and departments under the Tourism Ministry

The audit report noted that the Tourism Ministry’s audit for 2011 was conducted without any documentations or financial records from the Department of Information (DOI) operating under the ministry.

Repeated requests for documents from the department went unheeded, the report stated, adding that the financial statement of the DOI was not provided for the 2010 audit either.

On Monday (November 26), the President’s Office announced that the DOI has been abolished as new institutions formed by the 2008 constitutions carries out the functions previously performed by the department.

“Following this change, registration of media; formulating policies and facilitating the development of local media; creating the official Maldives’ calendar; maintaining the registry of journalists and writers; and, representing the Maldives internationally in the press field will be carried out by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture. Information to international media on local events will be given by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” the President’s Office stated.

Meanwhile, concerning the other offices operating under the ministry, the audit found that employees of the Maldives Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB) were paid overtime salaries in violation of the civil service regulations for calculating overtime.

The audit also noted that clothing allowance was paid to all employees in January 2011 in anticipation of overseas trips to attend tourism fairs. However, the allowance was not recovered from two staff at MTPB who did not travel abroad during the year.

An audit of the National Centre for the Arts (NCA) meanwhile revealed that MVR 24,735 (US$1,604) was spent out of the budget on tickets for a lecturer and his family for a “one-day creative writing workshop” on November 19, 2011.

However, an official agreement was not signed between the lecturer and the NCA and there was no documentation at the centre regarding the workshop.

The NCA also spent MVR 33,000 (US$2,140) during a ten-day period on food for 20 staff working on a “Male’ Art Festival” in excess of the approved rate in the public finance regulations. Catering was also arranged without a public announcement after seeking quotations from only two parties, the audit found.

A total of MVR 19,750 (US$1,280) was spent on catering for seven events organised by the NCA in 2010 without seeking quotations from more than one party.

The catering contract was awarded to a particular party at a rate of MVR 50 per person while the public finance regulations specify a rate of MVR 40 per person.

Aside from a note from NCA and catering bills, the audit report noted that no other documentation for the transactions could be found at the NCA.

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Finance Ministry Director General challenges dismissal

The Finance Ministry has dismissed its Deputy Director General Ali Arif following a report from the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC), local media has reported.

Permanent Secretary Ismail Shafeeg told Haveeru that Arif was taking his dismissal to the employment tribunal.

Arif himself told the paper that he was unaware of the reason for his dismissal.

“I’ve only been told that I had violated the laws and regulations. I informed them via a letter that I cannot be fired until it’s proven that I’m guilty of wrongdoing. But I’m yet to receive a response,” he told Haveeru.

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