The Prosecutor General's Office PGO has notified the Anti-Corruption Commission that it would not pursue legal charges against any individuals in relation to the ventilator scam.
Sticking to its earlier decision of forgoing legal charges against any individual, PGO said that it had reviewed the additional information the ACC had submitted to the Office and found no concrete evidence that would support the charges relating to the scam.
It said that the reasons it had given for not pursuing legal charges in the case still remained relevant and hence would continue with its decision not to press charges.
But the PGO refused to clarify whether it had requested the ACC for further evidence that would back its claim of corruption within the transactions made to buy ventilators to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem himself had said before that his office decided against pressing charges due to a clear lack of evidence to support claims of misconduct and corruption.
Shameem said that his office had noticed administrative irregularities and instances where officials had disregarded regulations in relation to the transactions to purchase ventilators from a Dubai-based company.
But he said that these discrepancies did not carry enough weight that would warrant a corruption-related charge and the current documents that are available on the matter are not enough for a legal charge.
The Anti-Corruption Commission ACC had requested the PG Office to charge 11 officials from the government including former Health Minister Abdullah Ameen in relation to the alleged acts of corruption.
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.
