Prosecutor General’s Office PGO says it would not be charging any individuals in relation to the dubious ventilator transactions highlighted in the compliance audit report on COVID-19 response expenditures of the Health Ministry by the Auditor General’s Office.
This comes after the Anti-Corruption Commission requested the PGO to charge 11 officials from the government including the Health Minister Abdullah Ameen in relation to the alleged acts of corruption.
PGO said that it had declined the request made by ACC to file charges against individuals who were alleged to have acted against the Public Finances Act when awarding the contract to purchase 75 ventilators to a Dubai-based company named Executor’s General Trading.
PGO said that it had studied the charges and the background of the case and had declined to file charges against any individuals yesterday.
Earlier, ACC had said the ventilator corruption case ranks as one of the biggest corruption cases it had investigated.
It said in the joint investigation with Police, the investigating team had analyzed over 16,00 documents and 500 emails from different government institutions.
Officials to be formally charged include Health Minister Abdullah Ameen along with Deputy Health Minister Nishama Mohamed, Director at Health Ministry Naushad Ali as well as members of the Health Ministry Bid Committee Aminath Shaufa, and Assistant Director Fathimath Limya. They are set to be charged under Articles 512 and 513 of the Penal Code.
ACC also requested the PG office to charge Director at Health Ministry Ahmed Aslam, Deputy Minister Shiyam Muqadham, Legal Officer at the Ministry Ali Shiham, Assistant Director Abdullah Hafeez, Assistant Administrative Officer Hussain Niyaz, and Deputy Director-General Abdullah Shareef.
This comes after President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih requested the ACC and the police to fully investigate the discrepancies highlighted in the COVID-19 compliance report for Health Ministry.
Health Minister Ameen had since stepped aside from his duties as Health Minister and Minister of Housing Mohamed Aslam has been overseeing the work of the Health Ministry in his stead.
