Malé, Maldives – Maldivian Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has sent a request to the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) seeking prosecution against three persons for failing to procure ventilators in accordance with the agreement signed by the Health Ministry with Dubai’s Executors General Trading LLC.
The corruption case concerns the purchase of 75 ventilators during the Covid-19 pandemic in which the government had paid MVR 30.91 million to Dubai’s Executors General Trading LLC, which involved former Health Minister Abdullah Ameen and 10 others.
The case has been sent to the prosecutor’s office against former Deputy Minister of Health, Shiyama Mohammed, former Director of Health Ministry, Ahmed Aslam and former Legal Officer of the Ministry, Ali Shihaam.
The three were charged under Article 13 of the Prevention and Prohibition of Corruption Act with acting otherwise in a matter for the benefit of the state.
In addition, the state has sought recovery of MVR 31,052,025 lost in the scandal.
While Maldives’ Ministry of Health paid MVR 30 million to Dubai’s Executors General Trading LLC contracting the company to supply 75 ventilators when the Covid-19 virus started spreading in the Maldives, only 15 ventilators were supplied by them to date. From the 15 they had sent, 5 had missing parts which has not been accepted by the government.
