Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) has decided not to charge senior officials of the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation.
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) sent the names of six members of the ministry's bid committee in October to be charged for misuse of their positions.
Speaking at a press conference, Prosecutor-General (PG) Hussain Shameem said ACC has been informed that none of the officials can be charged with corruption.
The six members of the bid committee accused of misusing their positions are Ali Ikram, Mohamed Nizar Adam, Mariyam Samahath, Mariyam Thasleema, as well as deputy ministers of the transport ministry Shimaz Ali and Hamad Abdul Ghanee. ACC stated the members had allowed a company to gain undue benefit in their work to choose a company to design machine-readable number boards for the Maldives Transport Authority in December 2019.
Three companies had submitted their bid proposals for the project to design machine-readable number boards. The investigation from ACC found the bid committee members had chosen Vasajio Private Limited, which was the company that was placed second after the completion of the evaluation. ACC stated the committee had chosen the company after highlighting criteria that were not required for the project.
The commission stated it has discussed its investigation with the Ministry of Finance, which has advised the transport authority to continue the project with assistance from the national tender board. The transport authority subsequently terminated the agreement with Vasajio in April 2020.