Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has submitted for the third time the corruption charges against officials at the health ministry who were allegedly involved in the failed procurement of ventilators during the COVID-19 outbreak.
ACC requested the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) to prosecute former Deputy Minister of Health Shiyama Mohamed, Director Ahmed Aslam, and Legal Officer Ali Shiham. The commission requested that they be charged with taking action that goes against the interest of the state under Article 13 of the Anti-Corruption Act and that measures be taken to recover the USD2 million in state funds lost due to the incident.
Previously, ACC submitted the corruption charges against 11 health ministry officials. The PGO initially sent back the charges for further revisions and later decided not to file charges against the ministry officials, which included then-Minister of Health Abdulla Ameen, members of the ministry’s bid committee, and senior ministry officials.
Additionally, the government has begun the arbitration process over the ventilator scandal on the request of the health ministry. In 2020, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) found irregularities in procuring ventilators for the Maldives in the COVID-19 compliance audit conducted on the health ministry. The audit revealed Dubai-based Executors General Trading was paid 90% of the quoted price in advance to procure 75 ventilators in April 2020, of which only 15 were procured. The audit report also revealed the company was selected without assessing its financial and technical capabilities, in addition to not obtaining advance payment and performance guarantees.
The health ministry requested arbitration after the Dubai-based company failed to respond to repeated requests to return the amount paid by the Maldives government, which amounts to USD2 million. The government had also refused to use the 15 procured ventilators, as they did not meet the agreement upon specifications.