Malé, Maldives – The parliamentary group (PG) of MDP has decided against holding a no confidence vote to remove members of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
The motion was proposed by the Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed in a meeting today and put to vote within the MDP PG, with majority members voting against removing ACC members.
Speaker Nasheed has also recently called for the resignation of Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem and the President of the Anti Corruptions Commission (ACC), Mariyam Shiuna regarding the ventilator scandal.
In a tweet he sent out earlier on Saturday morning, Nasheed said that the damage to be incurred by the public would be immense if the matter is swept under the rug. He added that MDP would not want to be with a stealing government.
Nasheed’s comments come after PG Office decided not to prosecute the ventilator corruption case citing lack of evidence and money trail to any specific individuals. They added that their review of the case submitted by ACC revealed no new elements that provide the basis for prosecuting those involved.
The entire ventilator scandal came to light following an audit by the Auditor General’s Office, which suggested foul play in all three contracts awarded by the Ministry of Health, to procure 142 ventilators for the state during the year 2020. These include the agreements 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, out of which the agreement with Executors General which became the most controversial of all.
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 at the time refused to charge any of the individuals involved citing insufficient evidence.
While the then Health Minister Abdullah Ameen resigned from office after the matter hit headlines, some ventilators have since arrived. However, the new Health Minister Ahmed Naseem has said that there is no hope for any of the remaining ventilators to be received by the Maldives.
