Tag: anti corruption commission

ACC launch investigation into 99-year Maamigili Airport lease

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has begun investigating the 99-year lease of Maamigili Airport to Villa Shipping and Trading, local media reported.

The private airport is owned by Chairman of Villa Group and Jumhoree Party (JP) MP, Gasim Ibrahim. The airport had initially been leased to the JP presidential candidate’s Villa company for 30 years.

Former Minister of Transport Dr Ahmed Shamheed – who was nominated as transport minister by JP – was later removed from his cabinet post after extending the airport lease.

President of ACC Hassan Luthfee told local media that the commission has launched an investigation into the case and that all documentation regarding the lease has been collected.

“This Commission has started looking into the matter of the extension of the management period of Maamigili Airport for a duration of 99 years, because the news has been circulating in the media,” Luthfee was quoted as saying in local media.

Gasim has claimed that there were no acts of corruption in the airport lease.

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Case against Customs Director for “conferring undue advantage” sent to PG

The Prosecutor General’s Office (PG) has received a case against Customs Director of Finance and Accounts Ismail Hamdhoon, alleging he used the “influence of his position” to “confer undue advantage to a particular group,” reports local media.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) released a statement today (January 30) saying that they previously investigated two 2009 incidents.

“Customs had placed an order for the production of MVR 57,000 (US$3,696) worth of shields, without any prior announcement for submission of estimations,” Sun Online reports.

“An order worth more than MVR 25,000 (US$1,621) was placed for the production of a number of awards, which was also done without prior announcement for estimation,” local media added.

The Public Finance Act states that an announcement must be made to “seek parties for estimates” when spending above MVR 25,000 (US$1,621), according to local media.

The customs transactions Hamdhoon is being prosecuted for were carried out with his permission after “the customs tender committee informed employees not to make such transactions without proper announcements,” ACC said to Sun Online.

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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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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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ACC to investigate alleged violations of public finance law by Prosecutor General’s Office

Parliament today approved a decision by the Finance Committee to instruct the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to investigate alleged violations of public finance law by the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO).

The decision was made in a report (Dhivehi) forwarded by the Finance Committee after studying violations of the Public Finance Act and regulations under the law flagged in the PGO audit report for 2010.

Reviewing audit reports and recommending measures to be taken by the relevant authorities is part of the mandate of the public accounts oversight committee.

The Finance Committee decision was approved with 51 votes in favour and two abstentions.

The audit report found that the PG office spent a total of MVR 145,596 (US$9,706) in violation of the Public Finance Act.

Among the cases uncovered in the audit that the ACC was asked to investigate, the PGO was found to have spent MVR 40,745 (US$2640) in additional expenses for interior design after moving to its new offices, without an agreement on price and quality of the work as required by section 8.21 of the public finance regulations.

Moreover, the PGO spent MVR 45,938 (US$3000) on an official dinner to participants of an e-crime conference participants in June 2010 without a publicly-announced bidding process.

The Finance Committee decided to send both cases to the ACC for investigation and inform the PGO to take measures to remedy the matters identified in the audit report.

The committee also decided that the Prosecutor General had breached article 17 and 20 of the constitution on non-discrimination and equality before the law as the office has prosecuted cases where the public finance regulations were similarly violated.

After the committee report was passed at today’s sitting, some MPs contended that Prosecutor General Ahmed Muizz would have to be removed from his post due to the decision.

However, Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim – also chair of the Finance Committee – said that Muizz would not be dismissed as the process specified in the constitution had to be followed to remove appointed officials at independent institutions.

Meanwhile, in a press release last week, the PGO said it would “always welcome” investigations by other state institutions into alleged violations of the constitution and laws by the office.

The PGO’s statement also assured that the office would provide “full cooperation” for the investigation.

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Case alleging corruption in parliament’s chamber automation project forwarded to ACC

A case submitted by the Auditor General alleging corruption in the Parliament Chamber Automation Project has been forwarded to the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC).

The audit report of the parliament for 2010 highlighted issues with the MVR 2.1 million (US$136,000) project to install touch screens on every desk inside the parliament chamber.

The case was forwarded to the ACC by parliament after Speaker Abdulla Shahid had informed the parliament secretariat to comply with the request of the Auditor General, a statement by parliament revealed.

The audit report alleges that sufficient assessment was not carried out for the project, despite it being required to have gone through the tender evaluation board.

This resulted in the company awarded the contract to allegedly reap excessive profits due to the oversight.

The project was installed to facilitate viewing documents and to create an almost ‘paperless environment’.

The audit report noted that the project was awarded to a Maldivian company for MVR 1.3 million (US$84,300) on March 25 2010.

Despite being given 37 days to complete the project, the company took a total of 81 days, costing an additional MVR 720,425 (US$46,720) to complete the work.

The report added that additional funds had to be spent on the project because the software requested by the Parliament Secretariat turned out to be incompatible with the hardware used in parliament.

The software, called Thin Client, also turned out to be incompatible with the touch screens and touch keyboards used in the project.

Despite MVR 24,000 (US$1550) being spent on obtaining expert advice, the consultant was not held responsible for the additional money spend on the project.

The mistake led to the 100 Thin Client touch pads being removed and replaced by Nettops.

A company was awarded MVR 830,000 (US$53,617) to provide Nettops after winning a bid to supply the hardware.

MVR 1.3 million (US$84,300) was then paid to the new company for the installation of six servers, eight server switches and 100 touch screens.

The audit report noted that the parliament secretariat had conferred undue advantage to the contractor.

The secretariat did not deduct liquidated damages following the contractor failing to complete the project before the agreed deadline, as required by the Finance Act.

It was instead stated in the contract that the secretariat can decide whether to deduct liquidated damages or not.

Several opinions were included in the report indicating that the project was undertaken without proper studies, and in a manner that was not beneficial to the parliament.

Despite one aim of the project being to create a ‘paperless environment’, the report noted that parliament expenditure on photocopying and toner cartridges had not gone down.

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Auditor General, ACC Chair dismiss Attorney General’s delay allegations over GMR issue

Auditor General Niyaz Ibrahim and Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Chair Hassan Luthfy have dismissed claims by Attorney General Azima Shukoor last week that the government was awaiting completion of investigations by the independent institutions before making a decision on annulling the concession agreement with Indian infrastructure giant GMR, to develop and operate the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA).

“I would like to point out that the Anti-Corruption Commission still hasn’t finished the complete investigation into the GMR matter. This also presents difficulties for us,” Azima said at a press conference last week.

“I have met with the heads of ACC and Auditor General two, three times. I can’t say anything about the investigations. But I haven’t heard back anything after I shared the information I had available with them.”

However, ACC Chair Hassan Luthfy told newspaper Haveeru yesterday that he did not believe that the government was awaiting the completion of the ACC investigation to take action.

Luthfy said that the government had failed to take action on corruption cases investigated by the ACC and forwarded for prosecution.

“Hence in reality this is blaming someone else while failing to undertake their own responsibilities. I do not think that a party [government] who cannot take action over our previous findings on inquiries can take action in this [GMR] case,” Luthfy was quoted as saying.

Luthfy told Minivan News in September that the investigation could “take some time.”

Auditor General Niyaz Ibrahim meanwhile told state broadcaster Television Maldives (TVM) yesterday that he “could not accept” the Attorney General’s claim.

“If the government believes the agreement should be annulled, the government has the discretion or powers to do so,” he said. “The work of the Auditor General’s Office is not part of the government’s decision-making process. If the government made decisions based on what the Auditor General’s Office says, that would compromise the independence of the Auditor General’s Office.”

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Education Ministry questions ACC order to review awarding of scholarships

The Education Ministry has questioned instructions by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to review the awarding of scholarships from the Zakat (alms for the poor) fund, reports Haveeru.

State Minister for Education Aminath Ali denied the ACC’s claim that deserving recipients were denied scholarships due to flaws in the selection process, carried out jointly by the Education Ministry, Zakat Fund Committee and the Islamic Ministry.

Of 812 applicants, 320 were selected for the scholarships, she revealed.

“ACC had highlighted that though orphans deserved a mandatory nine points, that process had not been followed. We had requested the Islamic Ministry to define orphans before the process was selected. Islamic Ministry advised that orphans over the age of 18 who are employed would only receive a certain amount of points,” the state minister was quoted as saying.

She revealed that some students who were not chosen for the scholarships had filed complaints with the ACC, after which two officials from the commission examined the selection process and all relevant documentation.

She added that the ACC investigators had not questioned any officials from the ministry.

The state minister also denied claims by the ACC that the last stage of the selection process was carried out only by the Education Ministry despite the regulations stating equal involvement of both the Education and Islamic Ministries.

Aminath Ali went on to characterise the ACC’s order for a review as “bizarre” and questioned the purpose of the order, accusing the commission of violating the rights of students who deserved the assistance.

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Former Managing Director of Felivaru faces corruption charges

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has requested the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) press corruption charges against the former Managing Director of Felivaru Fisheries, Hamid Ahmed.

Newspaper Haveeru reported yesterday that Hamid was accused of abuse of authority in selling scrap material from the fish cannery without a bidding process in January this year.

While the agreement stipulated that the transaction should be made in US dollars, the ACC noted that payment was made in local currency.

Following the transfer of presidential power on February 7, Hamid was replaced by an appointee by President Dr Mohamed Waheed.

However, former Secretary General of the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), Hassan Rasheed of G. Sherenade, was appointed Managing Director of Felivaru last week to replace former MD Ali Ahmed, who was sacked from the post after the ACC forwarded a corruption case against the senior official for prosecution.

Former Chairman of Felivaru, Mohamed Imthiyaz, a member of the government-aligned Jumhooree Party (JP), was also dismissed from his post on September 25 following allegations of corruption and misappropriation of funds.

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