Male’, Maldives – The Committee on Member’s Privileges and Ethics has determined that former Minister of Health of Maldives Abdullah Ameen deliberately lied to and mislead the Parliament regarding the issue of contracting Dubai based company Executor’s General to procure 75 ventilators for the state.
The conclusion was made after Ameen’s statements and the report prepared by the Auditor General’s Office, on issues pertaining to the ventilator issue did not match, which resulted in an investigation by the Committee on Member’s Privileges and Ethics.
Following investigations, the Committee released a report stated that the statement of the Ministry made on 28th April, 2020 which was made in response to MP Haitham’s questions which were sent to the Ministry in writing, and the statement of Ameen on 20th October to the Committee has no differences.
However, in reference to the audit report published on 16th August, it was found that the statement given to the Auditor General’s Office and the statement provided to the Committee had several disputes.
It further read that based on the information provided by Ameen to the Committee, it has been found that the email copy provided to the Committee, claiming that official correspondence was made with World Health Organization regarding the ventilators, does not verify that the email was communicating with an employee of the Ministry or with anyone in relation to the Ministry.
The report also revealed that opportunity was provided to submit an official documentation the Committee, which the Ministry failed to act on, resulting in the conclusion that Ameen deliberately lied to the Parliament Committee, which was agreed upon by all members of the Committee, on 25th November.
A total of 142 ventilators were contracted to be procured, where agreements were 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. However, the audit report by Auditor General’s Office had suggested foul play in all three contracts among which the issue of Executors General has been highlighted the most.
Following this information coming to light, relevant authorities including the Anti Corruption Commission and the Maldives Police Service initiated investigations, which eventually resulted in the resignation of Ameen as Minister of Health, who was now been replaced by Ahmed Naseem, or more commonly known as Kerafa Naseem.
