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Ventilator Corruption: President dismisses two Deputy Ministers

Lamya Abdulla
04 May 2021, MVT 21:55
Shiyama Mohamed (l) and Nishama Mohamed: the two Deputy Ministers at the Health Ministry has been dismissed.
Lamya Abdulla
04 May 2021, MVT 21:55

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih dismissed two Deputy Ministers from the Health Ministry on Tuesday.

In a notice by the President's Office, it was revealed that Shiyama Mohamed and Nishama Mohamed were dismissed from their posts, earlier on Tuesday morning.

Two of them were accused of being involved in the ventilator corruption case.

Several major decisions regarding this controversy have been made recently.

Health Ministry has requested to annul the contract

The Health Ministry has requested to annul the contract made between the ministry and Dubai company Executive Directors on April 2, 2020. The contract stated that the company has to provide Maldives with 75 ventilators, out of which 65 has yet to be received.

In a press release by Attorney General's Office (AGO) on this matter earlier on Tuesday, they noted that as per the contract, Executive Directors had to provide the 75 ventilators within a 29 day period after the advance payment was done. Only 10 ventilators have been provided so far.

As the contract also stated that if the supplier fails to provide the ventilators as previously stated, they can request to annul it. Therefore, termination notice has been sent to Executive Directors on Sunday, AGO said.

The agreement between Health Ministry and Executive Directors was for MVR 34 million.

Health Ministry had paid 30 million Rufiyaa as advance payment, without getting a bank guaranteed.

The press release further stated that if Executive Traders fail to provide the agreed goods by the time, the are required to re-pay the money paid for it. If the advance payment, and compensation for losses suffered due to non-compliance, this case will be submitted for arbitration.

Even though it has been decided to pursue this within the Maldivian arbitration, it was submitted to the Maldives International Arbitration Center by experienced foreign arbitrators.

As Executive Traders is a company registered in Dubai, this became an issue of international arbitration.

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