Tag: maldives news

Independent institutions raise concerns over budget cuts

Several independent institutions, including the Maldives National University (MNU), have raised concerns over cuts made by the Finance Ministry to their proposed budgets for 2012.

The program-based budget submitted by some of the institutions was revised by the Finance Ministry to maintain recurrent expenditure in line with projected income.

The Rf 14.6 billion (US$946.8 million) state budget for 2012, was submitted to parliament on November 28 by Finance Minister Ahmed Inaz. It is now being reviewed by parliament’s budget review committee headed by local business tycoon, MP Gasim Ibrahim.

The committee met with senior officials of the Local Government Authority (LGA) and the MNU this week, as well as several other institutions, during which they  complained about cuts made by the Finance Ministry during the revision process prior to the submission to parliament.

MNU Chancellor Dr Musthafa Luthfy told the budget review committee that the initial budget proposed by the university was Rf191 million (US$12 million), which was reduced to Rf174 (US$11 million) on the Finance Ministry’s request.

However, according to Dr Luthfy, the ministry then cut down the university’s budget by a further by 22 percent, reducing the total budget for 2012 to Rf136 (US$9 million) – which he noted was “too small to run the university development programs planned for next year”.

He also said the university would be unable to hire qualified professors, and that new courses starting in 2012 would be negatively affected.

Local Government Authority (LGA) members said the Finance Ministry had downsized the proposed budget by 63 percent, reducing it to Rf13.8 million. Major reductions were made to the budget allocated for training and salary items.

According to the authority, the budget cuts will bring forth several problems in consolidating the decentralisation process.

Meanwhile, the budget proposed for two city Councils has also been reduced. Though a total budget of Rf295 million (US$19 million) was proposed by Male City Council, it was reduced to Rf140 million (US$9 million) and the proposed budget for Addu City Council was cut down by Rf100 million (US$6.5 million) leaving only Rf69.3 million (US$4.5 million).

Members from both City Councils have been quoted in local media as saying the cut backs would hinder city development plans and would cause the Council to fall behind in delivering services. They have asked the parliament to revive the amount.

Speaking to Minivan News, Deputy President of the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC), Muaviz Rasheed, said that the commission needs a minimum Rf27.7 million (US$1.8 million) for 2012 to smoothly run the office, provide training and conduct investigations.

However, the Finance Ministry had allocated Rf22 million which was Rf5 million less than the proposed budget, and slashed the staff training budget to “zero”, according to Muaviz.

“We need to provide professional training to staff to develop their investigation skills. There are also ACC employees who are gaining professional education abroad who are contracted to continue work here upon their return. But with no training budget, we won’t be able to continue financing their education. It would be a great loss to the institution,” he said.

With mounting concern from several institutions about the budget cutbacks, the parliament committee is expected to revise the budget before submitting it to the floor for final vote.

Finance Minister Ahmed Inaz told Minivan News today that the ministry is currently discussing “budget concerns” and will make a formal statement on Tuesday.

During the budget introductory statement he made at the parliament, Inaz said the program-based budget was prepared with special focus on producing results and maintaining recurrent expenditure in line with income.

“The programs included in the budget are based on the Strategic Action Plan,” he explained. “Special attention has been given in the budget programs to provide adequate and quality service to the public. The government’s aim is to match up the figures in the budget with development plans and ensure that all state expenditure is made to achieve a stated target.”

Steering committees have been formed to oversee the 31 programs in the budget, Inaz continued, urging MPs to also evaluate the progress of implementation over the course of the year.

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Reeko Moosa calls on Criminal Court to expedite corruption cases

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Chairperson and MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik has met with Chief Judge of the Criminal Court Abdulla Mohamed and urged him to conclude an ongoing corruption suit against Deputy Speaker of Parliament Ahmed Nazim.

Moosa said that the suits had been sitting in the court for almost three years but none of them had yet been concluded, which he said was a concern as cases against particular people took longer than others.

Nazim is facing multiple counts of conspiracy to defraud the former Atolls Ministry. The fraudulent purchases of harbour lights, national flags and mosque sound systems were first flagged in an audit report released in early 2009. During the hearings, police exhibited numerous quotations, agreements, tender documents, receipts, bank statements and forged cheques suggesting that Nazim received over US$400,000 in the alleged scam.

The Criminal Court in August refused to allow journalists to observe a hearing in Nazim’s ongoing corruption trial, in a move condemned by the Maldives Media Council (MMC).

Speaking to the press after yesterday’s meeting, Moosa said that his motivation was to urge Judge Abdulla Mohamed to expedite cases going on in the Criminal Court.

Moosa told the press that Judge Abdulla Mohamed told him that out of all the cases currently against Nazim, one of them will be concluded in a month at the most, according to MDP Official website.

Last Thursday Moosa and Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Ali Azim went to the Criminal Court and met with the Chief Judge regarding the same matter, a series of meetings that Moosa said would continue.

Local media today reported that Moosa and Azim went to the court to meet the Chief Judge but he was on vacation, and another Judge met with them instead.

Newspaper Haveeru reported Moosa as telling the press that the court had accused him of obstructing its duty.

The Criminal Court recently concluded a case against Moosa, a corruption case against Indpendent MP Abdul Hameed, and a case against MP Azim.

On March 2010, State Prosecutor Abdullah Rabiu said Nazim was managing Director of Namira Engineering and Trading Pvt Ltd when the company’s equipment and staff were used to create fake letterheads and submit proposals on behalf of unregistered companies.

One of the paper companies won a bid worth US$110,000 to provide 15,000 national flags for the former atolls ministry.

If found guilty, the MP for Meemu Atoll Dhiggaru and former vice-president of the opposition People’s Alliance will be ordered to pay Rf1.4 million (US$108,900) to the state and sentenced to between one to six years of imprisonment.

August 2009, Chief Inspector Ismail Atheef said police had uncovered evidence that implicated former Atolls Minister Abdullah Hameed, Eydhafushi MP Ahmed “Redwave” Saleem, former director of finance at the ministry, and Nazim in fraudulent transactions worth over US$260,000 (Mrf 3,446,950).

A hard disk seized during a raid of Nazim’s office in May allegedly contained copies of forged documents and bogus letter heads.

Police further alleged that MP Saleem actively assisted the scam in his then-position as director of finance at the ministry, while Nazim’s wife Zeenath Abdullah had abused her position as a manager of the Bank of Maldives’ Villingili branch to deposit proceeds of the fraudulent conspiracy.

Police said Hameed, brother of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, 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.

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President sends letters to three MDP MPs requesting “clarification” of corruption allegations against government

President Mohamed Nasheed has sent letters to Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MPs Ahmed Rasheed, Mohamed Musthafa and Shifaq Mufeeq, requesting they clarify corruption allegations made recently against the government.

According to the President’s Office, the Nasheed requested the MPs send details and evidence related to the corruption allegations as soon as possible, and urged their cooperation.

Mustafa told Minivan News that he had received the letter sent by the President and that he would share all the information he had, as requested by the president.

‘’These corruption allegations have become a national issue and the President is obliged to investigate it,’’ Mustafa said. ‘’I believe that when the president makes a request, we are obliged to share whatever information he wishes. There are many corruption allegations against senior officials of MDP and some serious allegations that we cannot share with the media right now,’’ he claimed.

“We will be sharing this information later,” he said, adding that he would reply to the president’s letter.

Several MDP MPs have recently alleged in parliament that there were corruption allegations in the government and that these should be investigated and stopped.

On November 21 during a debate in parliament MDP MP Shifag accused MDP Chairperson and MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik of corruption.

He claimed that excavators sent by Moosa’s Heavy Load Company to the SAARC Summit preparations were not usable, but that Moosa was paid millions of rufiya in lease payments for the excavators that he was not entitled to receive.

MDP MP Ahmed Rasheed claimed that same day in parliament that there was corruption in the government to a level that was ”concerning and dangerous.”

Ahmed Rasheed was not in town and was not available for a comment, while Shifag was in a committee meeting and was unavailable for a comment.

Moosa also said he was in a meeting and was unable to comment.

Last week Transparency International revealed that the Maldives had risen slightly to rank 134 in the organisation’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

The country scored 2.5 on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 10 (very clean), placing it alongside Lebanon, Pakistan and Sierra Leone.

The score however is a mild improvement on 2010, when the Maldives was ranked 143th and below Zimbabwe. The Maldives still rated as having higher perceived corruption than many regional neighbours, including Sri Lanka (86), Bangladesh (120) and India (95).

Project Director of Transparency Maldives, Aiman Rasheed, warned that the ranking could not be compared year-to-year, especially in the Maldives where there were only a three sources used to determine the index (India has six).

“Corruption in the Maldives is grand corruption, unlike neighbouring countries where much of it is petty corruption,” Rasheed said. “In the Maldives there is corruption across the judiciary, parliament and members of the executive, all of it interlinked, and a systemic failure of the systems in place to address this. That why we score so low.”

Faced with such endemic and high-level corruption, it was “up to the people of the Maldives to demand better governance”, he said.

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Media monitoring report hints at bias of local media

Transparency Maldives has published a report monitoring the performance and bias of six media outlets between March 23 and April 4 of this year.

The six outlets evaluated were DhiTV, MNBC One and VTV (television), and Haveeru, Miadhu and Minivan News (print).

News content produced by these outlets during the reporting period was categorised by subject (corruption, politics, human rights, etc), the air time and centimetres of coverage recorded, and the tone assessed (positive, negative, neutral).

This was reported by three people who ranked the connotations of words and pictures from positive to negative on a scale of 1-5.

Transparency Maldives observed notable limitations in the report, most significantly the small time period (two weeks) of monitoring. There was also no analysis of the order of news stories indicating the priority of subjects to the Maldivian press, or the omission of coverage.

Content was also subject to the news agenda of the short reporting period, and the subject matter of stories analysed did not incorporate stories relating to crime, gender or religion.

Key headlines on Minivan during the reporting period included: ‘Death of tourist at Kuredhoo Island Resort last year was accidental, finds UK inquest’,  ‘Parliament falling short of public expectations despite work rate, says Speaker Shahid,’ ‘Mahlouf calls on DRP supporters to shun “Thasmeen faction” rally’, ‘Blackmarket dollar crackdown won’t address demand, warn businesses, financial experts’, ‘Judges legitimised JSC’s actions with their silence’, and ‘Staff threw stones at intruder and left him in the water to drown, alleges Baros staff member’.

DhiTV

DhiTV was the first private television station to be registered in the Maldives in 2008, by local businessman Mohamed ‘Champa’ Moosa. It faces allegations from the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) of favouring the opposition.

25 percent of DhiTV’s coverage of parliament and 36 percent of its coverage of government during the reporting period was negative. Other subjects with a high weight of negative coverage included President Mohamed Nasheed (41 percent),  Ahmed Thasmeen Ali’s faction of the opposition Dhivehi Rayithunge Party (43 percent), and the Maldivian Democratic Party (22 percent).

DhiTV’s most balanced coverage was of police, which was 80 percent neutral.

MNBC One

MNBC is a 100 percent government owned corporation that manages the assets of former state broadcaster Television Maldives (TVM) and Voice of Maldives (VOM). It is currently locked in a legal dispute for its assets with the Maldives Broadcast Corporation (MBC), a body created by the then opposition-majority parliament. It faces allegations from opposition parties of favouring the government.

Twelve percent of MNBC’s coverage of the government during the reporting period was positive,  and four percent negative (the remainder was neutral). 17 percent of the station’s coverage of President Mohamed Nasheed was positive and 83 percent was neutral – there was no negative coverage of the President during the reporting period.

All of MNBC’s coverage of the council, police and Adhaalath Party was neutral.

VTV

Villa TV (VTV) is owned and funded by local business tycoon and Jumhoree Party (JP) MP Gasim Ibrahim, and faces allegations of political bias due to the nature of its ownership.

VTV’s coverage of parliament was very neutral (90 percent), while its coverage of government during the reporting period was 35 percent negative.

Coverage of Ahmed Thasmeen Ali’s faction of the opposition (DRP) was overwhelmingly negative (67 percent), significantly more so than its coverage of the MDP (20 percent negative to six percent positive).

31 percent of VTV’s coverage of its owner’s Jumhoree Party (JP) was positive – only two percent was negative. The report noted that the space afforded the JP was “significantly high”.

Haveeru

Newspaper Haveeru is the largest national daily with a print run of 3000 copies. It was first published by Mohamed Zahir Hussain, who according to Transparency “has close ties with former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom”.

Haveeru’s coverage of the government during the reporting period leaned towards negative (12 percent negative, 7 percent positive), and coverage of the MDP was almost twice as negative as positive (21 percent to 10 percent). Coverage of parliament was more negative (27 percent) than positive (nine percent).

Coverage of the DRP was 29 percent negative and only one percent positive. 46 percent of its coverage of Thasmeen’s faction was negative (to six percent positive), while its coverage of Gayoom’s faction was more balanced (32 percent negative, 13 percent positive). Coverage of the People’s Alliance (PA), founded by Gayoom’s half brother Abdulla Yameen, was 60 percent negative.

Twelve percent of Haveeru’s coverage of police was negative, compared to two percent positive.

Miadhu

Miadhu was founded by Ahmed Abdullah, the Minister of Energy, Environment and Water under the former government.

“Miadhu boasts a record of having no complaints about their publications so far, according to the Editor Abdul Latheef,” the report noted. Miadhu claimed to be circulating 3000 copies.

Miadhu’s coverage of the government was 17 percent positive and 19 percent negative, however its coverage of President Nasheed was weighted towards the positive (18 percent positive to 3 percent negative).

The newspaper’s coverage of the DRP was more significantly negative (12 percent) than positive (two percent).

Miadhu’s coverage of police, council, court and the elections commission was neutral.

Minivan News

Minivan News was analysed by Transparency alongside with print media, despite it being an online publication. Articles were printed and content physically measured in centimetres.

Initially established by the MDP in 2005 “due to the futility of attempting to cover [then] opposition news in the conservative media outlets that existed then”, Minivan News and the now defunct print publication ‘Minivan Daily’ met with strong interference from the former government, with several of its foreign reporters being deported.

“Many staff of Minivan were subjected to police intimidation, threats and harassment,” Transparency’s report noted, while the newspaper’s office in Colombo was raided by Sri Lankan police after it was falsely reported to be “a hub for dealing in arms.”

Following the change of power in 2008 the Minivan Daily newspaper was disbanded together with all funding from politically-affiliated sources. The Minivan News website was passed to a succession of foreign editors who attempted to establish it as a credible and objective source of news of the Maldives, and it has since relied on income generated through banner advertising.

Minivan’s coverage of the government during the reporting period was more significantly negative (19 percent) than positive (four percent). Coverage of President Mohamed Nasheed was generally balanced at 9 percent negative and 10 percent positive.

Minivan’s coverage of key institutions was overwhelmingly neutral, including the President’s office (100 percent neutral), High Court (100 percent), Supreme Court (100 percent), Council (100 percent), Local Government Authority (100 percent), Anti-Corruption Commission (100 percent) and parliament (98 percent). The exceptions were the Judicial Services Commission, of which coverage was 19 percent negative and 0 percent positive, and the Civil Court (44 percent of coverage was negative).

Coverage of the DRP inclined towards negative (34 percent) over positive (6 percent). Coverage of Thasmeen’s faction during the reporting period was 76 percent negative, while coverage of Gayoom’s faction was 23 percent negative. Coverage of the PA was 62 percent negative.

Minivan’s coverage of the MDP was slightly more negative that it was positive (8 percent to 6 percent respectively).

Transparency noted that Minivan’s coverage of the Adhaalath Party was 100 percent positive.

Recommendations

Transparency Maldives’ Project Director, Aiman Rasheed, acknowledged that the results were impacted by the key stories and news agenda of the short reporting period, “but even though two weeks is the minimum reporting period possible, you can already see the patterns emerge.”

Transparency’s Director Ilham Mohamed said media’s coverage in the week of the local council elections was also analysed, but said the results would be shared individually with media outlets as one week was too short a reporting period for a statistically-sound analysis. Transparency was considering expanding the project to include a longer monitoring period, she said.

Key recommendations in the report for media outlets included ensuring that journalists employed are provided with professional training and apprenticeships, and curbing the influence of owners and financial interests.

“Editorial policies of all media outlets should respect the principles of fair and balanced coverage and provide all parties with equal opportunities to present their view,” Transparency stated. “This is especially so during election period where the election laws specifically call for fair coverage to all candidates.”

Several political parties had announced boycotts of various media outlets on the assumption that coverage was politically influenced, the report stated, calling for an end to such boycotts.

“Political parties should recognise and respect the independence of journlists and media to ensure equal access to interiews, press conferences, party functions and access to speakers at panel discussions.”

The report also called for groups such as the Maldives Journalists Association (MJA) and South Asian Federation for Media Associations (SAFMA) “to play a stronger role in advocating for media freedoms.”

Download the full report (English)

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Thieves cut ceiling to steal Rf 400,000 from MTCC safe

Police are investigating the theft of Rf 400,000 (US$26,000) from a safe in the office of the Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC).

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said it appeared a group of people had entered the MTCC office in the Hulhumale Ferry terminal in Male’ by forcing open the door, and then cutting a hole through the ceiling to the first floor where the safe was located.

The thieves then forced open the safe and took the money.

Shiyam said the thieves “most probably” had information as to where the safe was located and that there was a significant sum of money inside.

No arrests have yet been made.

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Pillay controversy a missed opportunity to demonstrate nobility of Sharia: President

The Maldives missed an opportunity to demonstrate “the nobility of Islamic Sharia” to the world by reacting in “a Jihadi spirit” to controversial statements made by visiting UN human rights chief last month, President Mohamed Nasheed said at a rally Friday night.

A call for a moratorium and public debate on flogging as a punishment for fornication by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay in an address to parliament on November 24 was unequivocally condemned by the Islamic Ministry, religious groups and political parties as an unconstitutional challenge to a Quranic precept.

“That the punishments and rulings of Islamic Sharia are not inhumane is very clear to us,” Nasheed said. “We have the opportunity to show the whole world how noble and civilised Sharia is. That is because we are the only Islamic nation with a democratically-elected government.”

“Wasting that opportunity in a Jihadi spirit” with the claim of “defending Islam” was unacceptable, Nasheed told supporters at the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) rally at Dharubaaruge, which saw the launching of a ‘Plus One’ campaign to double party membership ahead of the 2013 presidential election.

“Opposition parties will always attack us by using religion as a weapon,” he said. “[But] believe that this country is the only Islamic nation where Islamic Sharia has been practiced uninterrupted for 700 years.”

Islamic chief justices and principles of Sharia law had “a sacred place” in the Maldives’ long history, Nasheed observed, which “will not be shaken.”

“Maldivians are not a people who will allow the slightest harm to Islam,” he said. “We know how civilised the religion of Islam is.”

MDP understood that Islam “brought the world out of jahiliyya [ignorance] onto the path of civilisation,” he continued, adding that the party was committed to protecting the culture and traditions of the country.

In the past three years, he noted, the government spent Rf1.2 billion on “the protection of Islamic faith” (page 200 of the MDP manifesto), including the construction of 40 new mosques across the country.

Nasheed said he had been writing about the decay of the Gemmiskiy in Fuvahmulah, an ancient coral stone mosque, since 1990.

Meanwhile in a press conference on Thursday, seven opposition parties announced it would be joining the coalition of NGOs for a nationwide mass protest planned for December 23 “to protect Islam” against the MDP government’s alleged “anti-Islamic agenda.”

Speaking at the Friday night rally, MDP Vice-President and MP for Feydhoo, Alhan Fahmy, strongly criticised opposition parties and religious groups for objecting to the Pakistani SAARC monument, which contained pagan symbols of the Indus Valley civilisation and a bust of the country’s founder Mohamed Ali Jinah topped by the Islamic crescent symbol.

“The time when people worshiped idols, when people worshiped people and the public worshiped rulers in this country is over and done with,” he said.

Alhan accused religious groups and scholars of the Adhaalath Party for employing “religion as a shield” for political purposes.

“Instead of bringing people from Egypt for Ramadan revival programmes, we gave the opportunity for Maldivian scholars to speak and deliver sermons,” he said, in contrast to the former regime “jailing them and shaving their beards with chili sauce.”

Alhan also argued that accusing senior officials of the MDP government as well as the party’s members of kufr (disbelief) went against Islamic principles in a Muslim society.

He urged the Adhaalath Party to cease “sowing discord” with accusations against fellow Muslims and suggested the religious conservative party “talk about something else if you want to come to power.”

President Nasheed meanwhile suggested that “the people today are too aware and enlightened” to believe the charges laid against the government.

“We know what the people of the Maldives want. We don’t have to watch TV stations to find it out,” he said, referring to the opposition-aligned privately-owned broadcasters DhiTV and VTV.

Nasheed observed that the MDP received 53 percent of the total votes cast in the by-elections for vacant council seats in Alif Alif Himandhoo, Faafu Bilehdhoo and Gnaviyani Fuvahmulah on November 19.

“In 2013, I have not the slightest doubt in my mind that we will take 60 percent of the vote in the first round,” he asserted, claiming that there was “no other party in the country yet” that could meaningfully compete with the MDP.

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Body of missing 37 year old woman found in Kudahuvadhoo lagoon

Police are investigating the death of a 37 year-old woman who was found floating in the lagoon of Kudahuvadhoo in Dhaal Atoll this morning.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said a search began after the woman was reported missing at 2:00 am last night.

President of the Kudahuvadhoo Island Council Ibrahin Fikry told newspaper Haveeru that the woman, identified as ‘Sheereena’ of Kaneeruge, was found near the island’s breakwater at 6:00am. She was bleeding from an injury between her nose and mouth, as if she had been punched or hit, Fikry told Haveeru.

However Sub-Inspector Shiyam told Minivan News that police had not noticed any incriminating injuries on the body and were not yet treating the incident as suspicious.

“The injuries could have [happened] in many ways. We are speaking to family members and the people who saw her last,” he said.

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High Court issues injunction against sale of MNBC assets

The High Court issued an injunction on Sunday forbidding the Maldives National Broadcasting Corporation (MNBC) from selling, transferring or destroying any state media assets.

According to the injunction, MNBC cannot take any action that violates the Civil Court’s ruling in May that the station was to transfer all state media assets to the parliament-created Maldives Broadcasting Corporation (MBC). MNBC appealed against the Civil Court ruling in the High Court. That decision is still pending.

This week’s court’s decision came following a case filed by MBC to halt alleged misuse of state media assets by the MNBC board, and prevent the company from laying off workers before the final verdict on the transfer of assets.

MNBC Chairman Madulu Mohamed Waheed told local media outlet Sun that MNBC’s had decided to close seven media centres based in different atolls, and sent notice of dismissal to staff employed at those stations. Affected employees would receive three months’ salary as a redundancy package, he said, but did not state the reason for the decision.

MNBC and MBC have been engaged in a long-running tug-of-war for control of the assets of the state broadcaster, formerly Television Maldives (TVM) and Voice of Maldives (VoM).

The government contends that the MBC board is stacked with opposition supporters and that its attempt to gain control of MNBC is effectively a media coup, while MNBC has been criticised for favouring the ruling party.

MNBC’s proponents claim that given the opposition’s influence over private broadcast media the consolidation of media ownership in the hands of a few opposition-leaning MPs, the government has no alternative.

Even the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) waded into the debate at the behest of the Maldives Journalists Association (MJA), in support of MBC and an independent state broadcaster.

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“2012 is going to be a duty free year”: President

President Mohamed Nasheed ratified amendments to the Export-Import Act of 1979 on Thursday, enacting a key piece of legislation in the government’s economic reform package intended to reduce and eliminate import duties for a wide range of goods from January 2012.

Under the amended Act, zero rate now applies to construction material, foodstuffs and machinery run of renewable energy.

In his weekly radio address on Friday, Nasheed said the budget submitted to parliament “will make 2012 a duty free year.”

As a result of the shift from indirect to direct taxes, Nasheed noted, government revenue from custom duties levied upon imported goods will drop by Rf700 million next year.

Economic forecasts predict that prices for some items would fall by 9 or 13 percent, he added.

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