The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC), on Wednesday, concluded that the State Minister of Health Dr Shah Abdulla Mahir did not participate in any acts of corruption whilst procuring ventilators for Maldives' COVID-19 response and decided on not pressing charges against him.
The corruption watchdog is also not seeking charges against three other members of the Health Ministry's bid committee -- Deputy Minister Nishama Mohamed, Director Naushad Ali and Legal Officer Mohamed Abdul Ghani.
ACC launched a joint investigation with the Maldives Police Service in August, after the Auditor General's Office published a compliance audit on the Ministry of Health's COVID-19 expenditure, revealing that the ministry had spent over MVR 30 million in violation of the Public Finance Act.
As part of the government's COVID-19 response efforts, the health ministry had signed agreements with Naadu Pvt Ltd to procure 24 ventilators and MedTech Maldives Pvt Ltd to secure 50 ventilators, in addition to the 75 ventilators from Dubai-based Executors General Trading LLC.
Per the audit, the health ministry's negotiations with Executors were rife with corruption, including false claims that the order was placed following a recommendation by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The state has already paid MVR 30.9 million for the 75 ventilators, covering 90 percent of the total cost of MVR 34 million.
Additionally, the audit report revealed that agreements with local companies Naadu Pvt Ltd and MedTech Maldives were formulated in a manner damaging to the state and seemingly, deliberately steered towards enriching certain entities.
However, in the document sent to the bid committee members following the conclusion of the investigation, ACC stated that the suppliers were provided extensions on reasonable grounds, considering the situation at the time.
Noting that the Health Ministry had provided extensions on many of the procurement deals signed during that time period, ACC also added that Maldives' borders were closed when the extensions were granted to the suppliers, although the initial agreements were signed before border closing.
Naadu Pvt Ltd and MedTech Maldives have now delivered all the ventilators the government procured from them.
Furthermore, while all three companies failed to procure the equipment before the specified deadline, 10 ventilators provided by Executors did not meet standards stipulated in the agreements and subsequently could not be used to treat COVID-19 patients.
After being summoned to the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, the minister and other staff maintained that they had operated in line with the Public Finance Act and relevant procedures to procure the ventilators, asserting that nothing was done to facilitate corruption or illicit enrichment for any entities.
Just prior to absolving Shah and three members of the bid committee from corruption, ACC requested the Prosecutor General's Office to press charges against Minister of Health Abdulla Ameen, as well as 10 other individuals, regarding the fraudulent procurement of 149 ventilators.
In addition to the health minister, the corruption watchdog requested that the PG Office press charges against Financial Controller Ahmed Aslam, two individuals that had reviewed and signed off on documents, in addition to several senior officials sitting on the health ministry's bid committee.
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