Male’, Maldives – The Maldivian Parliament’s Judiciary Committee passed a vote requesting that the ventilator case sent by Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) to the Prosecutor General’s (PG) office be reviewed after it was dismissed by the latter for having insufficient evidence.
After PG Office rejected the case, The Parliament’s Judiciary Committee investigated the matter further and compiled a report which was passed by 50 Members of Parliament in todays meeting.
The report by the Judiciary Committee highlighted 3 main propositions, the first being a request for the PG Office to obtain more details on the ventilator scandal from parties involved in the investigation such as ACC and Maldives Police Service.
The next proposition was to collect the information which are with the investigation authorities and to advice the Prosecutor General to review their decision on prosecuting the case. The third request is to inform the Judiciary Committee of the decision PG Office makes on whether to review the case or not.
75 ventilators brought in by the Maldivian Health ministry for their COVID-19 response plan have been surrounded with much controversy. Following a joint investigation by the ACC and Maldives Police Service, it was revealed that former Minister of Health Abdulla Ameen and 11 employees of the ministry were involved with the expenditure of over MVR 30 million in violation of the Public Finance Act.
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.
