Corruption charges sought against three ex-IGMH officials including Dr. Latheef

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has sought charges against three former senior officials of Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) with respect to the reagents used for PCR testing at the hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ACC, in a statement, said charges have been sought against former Chairperson of the Procurement Committee, member of Technical Advisory Committee and member of Technical Advisory Group Dr. Ali Abdul Latheef; former CEO Ibrahim Saleem and former Head of Laboratory Dr. Milza Abdul Muhsin, all of whom were employed at the hospital during the COVID-19 period.

As per the Commission, it had requested the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG Office) to charge all three individuals with misuse of official capacity under the Penal Code for providing an illicit benefit to a third party with self-interest and gaining an illicit benefit by allegedly allowing, a private company, RMLS Lab Services, to have access to the reagents used for PCR testing at the IGMH laboratory during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ACC also noted their investigations suggest that Dr. Latheef and RMLS Lab Services had committed money laundering and therefore, have filed a separate case with Maldives Police Service to investigate Dr. Latheef and RMLS Lab Services for money laundering.  

They have also requested Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) to review Dr. Latheef’s tax documents as the Commission’s investigations suggest he may have misled his finances in the documents.

ACC further said they have brought the cases concerning Dr. Latheef and Dr. Milza to the attention of Maldives Medical Council and have requested the Commission be informed if the Council takes any action against the two doctors. 

The COVID-19 pandemic saw other corruption cases come to light from the health sector as well. One such case involved an MVR 34.50 million contract awarded by the Health Ministry to Executors General Trading to procure 75 ventilators in 2020.

Executors General Trading only delivered 15 ventilators, and while Health Ministry paid MVR 30.91 million, which made for 90 percent of the total payment, to the company as an advance, without obtaining an advance guarantee or a performance guarantee.

ACC requested charges from the PG Office in connection to the case on multiple occasions despite which the Office decided against pressing charges.

The no-confidence motion against Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem which was recently submitted to the Parliament cites the decision against pressing charges in the ventilator case as one of the reasons behind the motion.