Malé, Maldives – A month after the case of Male’ City Mayor Shifa Mohamed’s suspected corruption in a park construction project at Lonuziyaaraiyh was submitted, the Prosecutor General’s (PG) office has said that a decision has yet to be made on the matter.
PG office’s Media Official, Public Prosecutor Ahmed Shafeeu said that the no decision has been made on the case sent in by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on 29th September. He added that investigations are being carried out to determine the best course of action.
While some cases submitted to PG are settled well within a week, Mayor Shifa’s case has been quiet for almost a month. However, an official for PG office has said that prosecution has not been delayed and that due to the nature of the case and disagreements between lawyers, a final decision is yet to be made. He added that it is common for some cases to take a bit more time than usual to be filed at the court.
PG Hussain Shameem has previously said that he had recused himself from the case as there was a conflict of interest with him and to the case as he is related to Mayor Shifa. He said in an interview “I haven’t gone through, or even seen Shifa’s file, I have recused myself from the case”.
ACC said that some construction work in Lonuziyaaraiyh was planned to be contracted after a competitive bidding process, but was done by Ameen Construction without such a process and without proper documentation and transparency.
“We noticed that no party was selected by either Male’ City Council or bid committee for the construction work, such work can only be approved by the Council or the president (mayor) of council, who is Mayor Shifa Mohamed. Our investigation has shown that Mayor Shifa gave the go ahead for the project to start. In addition to this, our investigation also highlights that while construction was going on, she had the authority to stop the project, which she did not” ACC has told.
After ACC went public with their investigation and attracted media attention, Shifa said that there was no corruption involved in the project back in October of last year. Following the submission of the case to PG, Mayor Shifa said that these were nothing but baseless personal attacks. She has told that she would prove her innocence through the whole process of awarding this contract to AMIN in a statement she released on October 1.
