Male’, Maldives – Speaker of the Parliament of Maldives, Former President Mohamed Nasheed has not declared the status of the joint account in State Bank of India, Lloyds Bank UK and the land plot in K. Thulusdhoo of which he is a co-owner in the asset deceleration of the parliament members for the period 28th May 2019 to 27 may 2020 which has been published in the parliament website.
Nasheed declared these in his asset declaration which was published during the parliamentary elections by his party Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP). As per the asset declaration for the period 1st January 2018 till 31st December 2018, Nasheed had a joint account in SBI with an undisclosed partner with a total of MVR 5,040,294.24 (USD 326,867.33) and he had a Lloyds Bank account in the United Kingdom with a total of GBP 20,144.91 (MVR 402,664.28) in the account.
In addition to this Nasheed was also a co-owner of a 2,000 sqft plot (Luyoona Manzil, K. Thulusdhoo – GR-333/2012/56) of land in K. Thulusdhoo which is registered to four people including Nasheed. The others mentioned as co-owners of this land are Ahmed Nazim, Aminath Nashidha and Ibrahim Nashid.
However, these three declarations in the previous asset deceleration have not been included, nor the changes in ownership or expenditure has been mentioned in the asset declaration published in the parliaments official website.
The current asset deceleration states that Nasheed got a total of MVR 3,221,065.6 (USD 208,888.82) as income in the decleration period through this salary, allowances and bank interest. He also has a total of MVR 1,715,224.78 (USD 111,233.77) as savings in his bank accounts in Bank of Maldives, Maldives Islamic Bank and State Bank of India. He declared that he does not have a bank account outside of Maldives in this asset deceleration.
It has been one of MDPs key pledges to create a more transparent and accountable government and asset deceleration of public officials was done for the first time by the current government cabinet and other political appointees. While asset decelerations are being publicized, people have been criticizing that the family members of these public officials also need to have their assets decelered for the system to be truly transparent and accountable.
