In the past, the Maldivians were not strong enough to demand their right to the public treasury, and they think the treasury belongs to the ruler. Nobody dares to check the accuracy of public assets, public expenditures, and income. There is a precedent in our political way of life to make allegations for outgoing rulers who steps down or removed from office. Allegations for the suspected misuses and frauds
were made to the first President Mohamed Amin in 1953 and second
President Ibrahim Nasir, in 1979 more recently heard about 800 million dollars worth of corruption cases related to President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and his family. It indicates that the Maldives' general public was mainly aware of the corrupted activities though they stayed quiet against the existing ruler was in power. During the late ’80s, Maldives established an Anti-Corruption
Authority and like all other powers, the authority was controlled by the
President. The hope of combating corruptions with independent viewpoints
was formed after the new constitution in 2008, and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) of Maldives was established as an independent institution. With political pressures and technical setbacks, ACC worked restlessly to clear the junk formed in the community for many years. To deal with the public ignorance of corruption, awareness programs were conducted. With few years of works, the general public gets more alert on corrupted activities, and fearless reporting of such activities increased. The hope for justice on corruption was faded when high-profile cases and their players acquitted from the courts. Sometimes, the public gets disappointed with the verdicts saying, “the justice is blind, but the public is not.” Recently, it raised eyebrows of public
accountants and auditors when senior government official Abdulla
Algeen, younger brother of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and MP
Abdulla Yamin was innocent over fraud charges of USD177,460
(MVR2,280,361). The foreign aided fund from a Japanese research agency
Jamstec to Department of Metrology Maldives was deposited to Abdulla
Algeen’s personal bank account. It is clearly stated in Public Finance
Regulation (2009) article 3.01 and article 3.04 that all foreign aided funds should be deposited to the public bank account through the Ministry of Finance and Treasury (MoFT), and reimbursements from foreign aided funds should be notified to MoFT. Other such cases of MP Ahmed Nazim and MP Saleem
(Redwave) declined from the court earlier this year. Just a few weeks after those verdicts, The Supreme Court of the Maldives overruled the High Court injunction in blocking the
implementation of a border control system (BCS) in Ibrahim Nasir
International Airport by Malaysia-based security solutions firm Nexbis.
ACC halted the multimillion-dollar project for the investigations based on the evidence of suspected corruption; Supreme Court’s ruling states that ACC may submit such cases to court through the Prosecutor General (PG). Furthermore, the
Supreme Court invalidated the injunction, saying that “the subject of
the injunction was not a subject where an injunction can be issued and thereby the bench of the Supreme Court unanimously rules that High Court order is invalid”. This affected the prevention measures of ACC, and now they have to wait till corrupted activities get complete. Many public offices (who had suspected corruption activities) followed the court verdict on the same day, a public company hurrily paid off a payment blocked by ACC on alleged procurement of a vessel under investigation. And other public offices resumed all of their halted works. Nexbis contract was resumed to implement as fast as never before. Department of
Immigration and Emigration, the project owner, celebrated the verdict by
distributing “Bondibai” to all other Government Offices.
This might be just another talking matter for our coffee chats, and as normal citizens, we might not take these things seriously. But for a country with nearly 350,000 people of population and limited resources
for economic gain, Maldives is facing huge challenges in improving
public administration and confronting the matters related to corruption.
According to last year’s corruption perceptions Index from
Transparency International, where a total of 183 countries and territories an assessed score below five on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 10 (very
clean.) The Maldives is rated among highly corrupted countries, down in
134th position with 2.5 points.
Technical studies on corruption indicate that the toughest time to combat corruption is in the early stages of political transitions. The Maldives was experiencing major political changes after the new constitution in 2008. It is believed that the country may face similar obstacles in fighting corruption which other countries in this situation faced. While in this status of transitions, the police and
judicial systems tend to get involved in corruptions, including
questionable enforcement of business contracts and other
commercial litigation. It frequently involves diversion of a percentage
of funds from critical projects into the pockets of senior government
officials or their families often in systematic skimming operations.
Unfortunately, most of the corruption occurs in countries whose populations are least equipped to deal with the consequences or deprived nations like the Maldives. According to Transparency International, the most corrupt nations are those with “an extremely weak institutional setting.” In Haiti, for instance, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled
in the face of an internal uprising and international pressure after he
sought to move a number of his political allies into the highest
positions within the justice system. However, a corrupt police force is
still almost ubiquitous there, helping to cement the country’s place alone at the top of the most corrupt list.
According to Transparency International, there were recent
improvements found in anti-corruption mechanisms in many nations when
these countries ratified the United Nations Convention Against
Corruption. Though we do not notice any developments in Anti-Corruption
measures, Maldives is in accession of this Convention from 27 March
2007. According to the UN Convention, corruption can be prosecuted after
the fact, but first and foremost, it requires prevention. An entire chapter of the Convention is dedicated to prevention. It is intended to promote transparency and accountability in public finance. Specific requirements are established to prevent corruption in the particularly critical areas of the public sector, such as the judiciary and public procurement. While prevention of corruption measures seems impossible in the Maldives, it is assumed that the Maldives ignores the UN convention. When the country is weak in anti-corruption measures, foreign aided funds and loans can be the most affected areas. Since the general public in the Maldives is not aware of the targeted outcome of these projects. While most foreign aids are without proper results, more corrupted activities are expected in this area. It appears that the prevention measures are not encouraged in the system of governance.
Reference: www.zariyand.com
