Maafushi, Maldives – Former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom has called out the current administration to stop auctioning off State Owned Enterprises (SOE’s) under the false pretense of privatization.
In a message he sent to the public through his former Vice President and current lawyer, Dr. Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, the former President accused the government of influencing the judiciary and also stated that the proposed budget for 2021 by the current administration was a “cosmetic budget”.
The criticism from the Former President Yameen comes after the current government included an income forecast of MVR 462.6 million through privatization of SOE’s.
While much criticism has already been aimed at some of the governments plans for new income sources, the Minister of Finance, Ibrahim Ameer had said that privatization was not selling off SOE’s to anyone and that it would increase the revenue the government gets through those.
Minister Ameer has also told that privatization would increase the efficiency of the companies and increase the profits which would directly benefit the people. He also added that this would mitigate corruption from such companies and help to operate them through better management policies which would make these companies prosper.
The Former Maldives president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for money laundering in November 2019 with a fine of USD 5 million over receiving USD 1 million of government money through a private company as part of a deal to lease a number of tropical islands for hotel development.
