Center Enterprises' claims against Male' City Council in attempting to acquire MVR 168 million for the goods provided when the Male' Municipality was still under operation has been rejected by the Civil Court.
Center Enterprises filed a case against Male' City Council seeking payment of MVR 65.9 million for the alleged vehicles that were provided in 2007 and the penalty of MVR 102 million for not having paid that amount, totaling MVR 168 million.
As per the Civil Court's ruling yesterday, even though the company stated they were given the work after a successful bid regarding an announcement from the Tender Board at the time, the Finance Ministry informed the court that the amount is higher than the tender amount that was awarded in 2007.
The ruling additionally reads that even though Center Enterprises said they signed the agreement of 30th January 2007, the date was the final day for bid submission. And so, the sentence reads that it is difficult to believe that the Finance Ministry's Tender Board would have been able to declare that the bid has been claimed, to have told Male' Municipality and signed the agreement all on the same day.
The ruling goes on to say that as doubt had formed regarding the signing of the agreement and after looking over the documents, the Civil Court ruled that such a transaction cannot be proven when taking civil standards into account. The ruling also reads that even though an invoice was sent to acquire payment in 2007, the company filed charges 15 years later in 2022.
The ruling states that the court will not order MVR 168 million be paid in this case.
While the Civil Court made this ruling, there is an ongoing Supreme Court case submitted by Center Enterprises against the Ministry of Health. Even though the High Court ruled that the Health Ministry is to make payment for goods and services that were provided by the company, the prosecution is making the case in the Supreme Court that no such agreement had been made at the time.
A special audit was conducted by the Auditor General's Office for the case, with their findings concluding that no such transaction had occurred with the Ministry of Health at the time.
