It has come to light that Centre Enterprises, a private firm, had submitted a fraudulent invoice to the Civil Court in a case where MVR 32 million was ordered to be paid to the company within one month.

The judgment was handed down in February after Center Enterprises filed a civil suit against the Department of Medical Services for MVR32.7 million in goods supplied between 2006 and 2008.

The Civil Court ruled that the value of the goods mentioned in the invoice, MVR 32.7 million, was owed to the company by the Department of Medical Services.

At the same time, the Attorney General's Office has requested a special audit to be conducted over the owed funds, which the Auditor General's Office is now conducting.

It was during this audit that the fraudulent invoice was discovered.

The invoice was made in the name of a company that imports medical equipment to Maldives. Centre Enterprises argued in court that the company had issued equipment worth MVR 12.4 million to them.

However, the company that allegedly issued the goods on credit informed the relevant authorities that the invoice was never issued by them. According to an official of the company, the employee names listed on the invoice had never worked at the company. The goods allegedly issued on credit through the invoice were also never imported by the company.

Center Enterprises also sought MVR 51 million as a penalty on the invoice for non-payment of the goods. However, the court did not order the fine payment as the agreement did not provide such a clause.

In addition to the MVR 32 million case, the High Court also ruled in February that the state should pay USD 2 million in compensation in a non-payment case of medical services.

In April, the Civil Court also ordered the State to pay MVR 12.7 million in one month to Centre Enterprises after the company filed a lawsuit to recover the outstanding amount of water tanks provided to the Environment Ministry.