The Parliament of the Maldives has accepted an emergency motion calling for immediate action on corruption within the government.
The emergency motion on corruption was raised by Parliamentarian Adam Shareef Umar in relation to the findings of the COVID-19 compliance audits of Ministry of Health and Ministry of Tourism. The motion was accepted by the parliament with votes from 21 parliamentarians.
Opposition parliamentarians who spoke on the motion called for the resignation of the ministers involved in the misappropriation of state funds amid a pandemic which has crippled the country’s economy. Meanwhile, parliamentarians representing the government expressed confidence that President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih will ensure the government officials responsible for the misappropriation will be held accountable.
The COVID-19 compliance audit conducted on the health ministry revealed significant irregularities in the procurement of ventilators in preparation for a surge in COVID-19 cases. In this regard, the audit report revealed the Dubai-based Executors General Trading was paid 90% of the quoted price for 75 ventilators in April, mandating the company to supply all 75 ventilators within 29 days of the advance payment. However, no ventilators have been supplied by the company in the four months that have passed since the payment.
Meanwhile, the audit of the tourism ministry revealed about 99% of the expenditure undertaken by the ministry for COVID-19 preparations was outside of its mandate. As such, the report revealed USD 1.7 million was spent by the tourism ministry outside of its mandate for COVID-19 preparations.