State takes ventilator case to Maldives Arbitration

The Maldives government has filed a lawsuit against Dubai-based Executors General Trading for failing to deliver ventilators for the treatment of Covid-19 patients at the Maldives International Arbitration Center.

The Attorney General's Office said in a statement on Monday that the company has violated the agreement signed between the Ministry of Health of the Maldives and Executors General Trading on February 2, 2020, to deliver the ventilators. The case was referred to arbitration on February 16.

According to the Attorney General's Office, the prosecution sought a total of USD 2 million (MVR 32 million) in compensation for the ventilators and the failure to deliver the ventilators, in addition to interest and arbitration costs.

"The state is obliged to maintain the confidentiality of all matters relating to this case," the Attorney General's Office said in a statement.

During the pandemic, the government gave the company MVR 34 million without a bank guarantee so that it could buy 75 ventilators. While such a large amount was released at once, the capacity of the company to provide ventilators was not considered.

According to the audit report and the Anti Corruption Commission's (ACC) investigation report, no details about the company had been obtained. However, the company did not provide ventilators as per the agreement.

Some of the first shipment of ventilators sent to the Maldives by Executors General Trading had not been used. The Health Ministry ordered the company to refund MVR 31 million for not handing over the remaining ventilators. However, the refund was not provided either.

The ACC has asked the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) to prosecute three people in connection with the award of the ventilators to the Dubai-based company. They are former Deputy Minister of Health, Shiyama Mohamed, former Director of the Ministry, Ahmed Aslam, and former Legal Officer of the Ministry Ali Shiham.

Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem said yesterday that he would decide this week whether to prosecute the ventilators' corruption case.