Male’, Maldives – Anti Corruptions Commission of Maldives (ACC) requests the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) to review their statement of not prosecuting any of the 11 individuals who were requested to be prosecuted by ACC regarding the corruption involved in the awarding of contracts by the Ministry of Health to procure ventilators for the state.
The issue was investigated by ACC after an audit by the Auditor General’s Office suggested foul play in all three contracts awarded by the Ministery of Health, to procure 142 ventilators for the state. These include the agreements made between Executors General Trading LLC for 75 ventilators, MedTech Maldives Pvt Ltd for 50 ventilators and with Naadu Pvt Ltd to acquire 24 ventilators, out of which the agreement with Executors General which became the most controversial of all
Due to this, ACC had forwarded 11 names, including that of Minister Ameen, to the Prosecutor General’s Office to be charged with corruption under part (a)(2) of section 511, part (a) of section 512, part (b) of section 513 and part (a)(1) of section 313 of the Penal Code of Maldives. However, PGO revealed that due to insufficient evidence they have taken the decision to not prosecute any of the 11 individuals, therefore, PG sent back the report regarding ventilator corruption back to ACC.
However, a statement released by ACC stated that the report sent by the Commission to PGO was an extensive investigation, which consists of sufficient evidence to prosecute those involved in the corruption. However, PGO has not yet responded to the request by ACC.
