Centre Enterprises accuses State of withholding documents

Centre Enterprises has accused the State of concealing some documents in relation the compensation claims filed by the company against the State, asserting that the State has done so as they accept the payments must be made.

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A senior official of Centre Enterprises, Abdulla Arif.

Mariyath Mohamed

2025-05-27 17:24:19

Centre Enterprises has accused the State of concealing some documents in relation the compensation claims filed by the company against the State, asserting that the State has done so as they accept the payments must be made.

Court has ordered the State to pay Centre Enterprises in three separate cases concerning work conducted by the company in 2006 and 2008. The State has now accused Centre Enterprises of submitting fake invoices to the Court in these cases, and forwarded the case to Police for investigation.

Centre Enterprises released a statement in response to this, where they said that a letter sent in 2023 regarding goods provided to Health Ministry did not state that the money does not have to be paid. The statement further said that in the court case, statements had been taken from those involved in the delivery of goods, but no witnesses had been presented by the State. It said that the Health Ministry had said that relevant documentation had been found in Health Ministry's warehouse, but had failed to show these, stating that this was because they did not want it to prove that they had failed to make the owed payments.

"The State did not clarify why these documents were not presented in Court even when the Civil Court and High Court ruled in the case. It appears that the reason why the State is hesitating to show these documents is non-payment," the statement reads.

The statement goes on to say that in the Court ruling where the State is ordered to pay MVR 12.7 million for the supply of water tanks to Environment Ministry, the State was unable to disprove the bank's documents which shows that the payments were not made. The statement claims that Police had seized the original documents in the case some years back, with some documents missing when they were later returned.

Centre Enterprises' stance is that the State is now speaking of forwarding the case to Police with the intention to intimidate. They said that the State had appealed for such an order to be issued on Police even during Civil Court proceedings, however the State had later not appealed the case when this order was not issued. Centre Enterprises claim that the State is now once again speaking of this with the intention of influencing judges.