Agreement to award Night Market project to Go Media has been terminated: ACC

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) said that the agreement between Male’ City Council and Go Media Private Limited, whereby the project to manage Male’ City Night Market was awarded to Go Media by City Council, has been terminated.

ACC said in a statement today that the commission was informed on 21 November 2013 by the former City Council that its five-year agreement with Go Media regarding the management of the Night Market had been terminated on 19 November 2013; and any activity contradicting this would be deemed as corruption.

ACC said that it had also received a copy of the letter sent by City Council to Go Media, informing Go Media of the termination of this agreement.

Meanwhile, General Manager of Go Media Ibrahim Amir told Sun Online that Go Media had not been informed that its agreement with City Council had been terminated.

ACC said in a letter sent to Male’ City Council on 26 March 2014 that the Prosecutor General’s (PG) Office had been asked to press charges against three former City Council members, after an investigation carried out by the commission proved that undue influence was involved in the process of awarding the project to manage Male’ City Night Market 2013 to Go Media.

ACC said that its investigation had revealed that following City Council’s announcement seeking a party to manage the night market, a few parties collaborated and submitted several proposals with different prices - to make it seem like they were competing against one another.

ACC said that in the evaluation process, Go Media was given full points for experience, but the company had not submitted any documents to show that it had any experience managing similar projects.

Go Media was created eight days before the council made the announcement seeking a party to manage the night market, said ACC.