Male’, Maldives – Former President and current Speaker of the Parliament of Maldives Mohamed Nasheed said that the Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem holds back when prosecuting cases of corruption against certain people.
This was during the parliamentary discussions regarding the report from the Committee on Member’s Privileges and Ethics regarding the case of Former Health Minister Ameen in which 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. Further investigation from the Committee on Member’s Privileges and Ethics revealed that Ameen has deliberately made false statements to the parliament. During the debate of the report, some members said that such cases mostly end with no actions taken.
Replying to the comments from the parliament members, Nasheed said that as long as he is the Speaker of the Parliament, cases conflicting with the Member’s Privileges and Ethics of the Parliament will be investigated. He then said that the situation may arise sometimes where he is not able to comment regarding certain cases such as those of sexual offences, theft and alcohol intake and said that cases relating to the Member’s Privileges and Ethics will certainly not go unattended.
My point even though we are not able to go into detail of some cases, when we finalise decisions regarding cases that conflict with the privileges of the parliament, the Prosecutor General must prosecutor these cases. There are no excuses for this. It has been noticeable that the Prosecutor General is reluctant in prosecuting certain cases of theft.
Speaker of the Parliament of Maldives Mohamed Nasheed
Anti Corruption Comission (ACC) accused former Health Minister and other officials of the Health Ministry of corruption during the purchase of ventilators and the case was sent to the Prosecutor General’s office to be prosecuted. However, the case was later disregarded saying that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute the case. Speaker Nasheed expressed his concern over this decision and requested the case to be reviewed again by the state. He also requested the Judiciary Committee of the Parliament to further investigate the case.
