Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has revealed it has submitted names of senior officials of the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation to the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO).
ACC stated it sent the names of six members of the ministry's bid committee to be charged for misuse of their positions. The commission stated the members had allowed a company to gain undue benefit in their work to choose a company to design machine-readable number boards for the Maldives Transport Authority in December 2019.
The six members of the bid committee accused of misusing their positions are Ali Ikram, Mohamed Nizar Adam, Mariyam Samahath, Mariyam Thasleema, as well as deputy ministers of the transport ministry Shimad Ali and Hamad Abdul Ghanee. Three companies had submitted their bid proposals for the project to design machine-readable number boards.
The investigation from ACC found the bid committee members had chosen Vasajio Private Limited, which was the company that was placed second after the completion of the evaluation. The committee had chosen the company after highlighting criteria that were not required for the project, stated ACC.
The commission stated it has discussed its investigation with the Ministry of Finance, which has advised the transport authority to continue the project with assistance from the national tender board. The transport authority subsequently terminated the agreement with Vasajio in April 2020.