Saturday
23rd Nov 2024
Dhivehi Edition
Ali Ikram with First Lady Fazna.
Ali Ikram, Deputy Managing Director of Maldives Gas, has been accused of fraud. Maldives Gas is a subsidiary of the state-owned State Trading Organization (STO).
Ikram is accused of defrauding the State in the procurement of oxygen cylinders required for the defence against COVID-19. He is accused of having defrauded the State of MVR 16 million.
The SOE Committee of the Majlis accused that at least a part of the 4,128 oxygen cylinders procured by Maldives Gas were brought to illicitly benefit a certain interested party. The Committee is currently investigating DMD Ikram’s case.
Ikram, who has been suspended due to accusations of sexual harassment, is a close associate of First Lady Fazna Ahmed. He had proceeded to threaten several employees that he could not be touched because of his close relationship with the First Lady.
The issue of the cylinders came to the attention of the SOE Committee due to a trip Ikram took to Singapore with a shareholder of the company that had illicitly benefited from the cylinder procurement. Ikram’s travel expenses had been borne by the shareholder.
Maldives Gas had requested 6 companies for quotations, and had procured 1,000 cylinders from one of those companies. The remaining 3,000 cylinders had been procured from a Singaporean company called Probiz. Probiz had never undertaken such work in the past, and none of the cylinders supplied by Probiz turned out to be usable.
The cylinders had been procured from the Singaporean company at a higher price than the other companies. Records show that the Procurement Manager at Maldives Gas had objected to decision to procure the cylinders from Probiz. Ikram had responded by changing the Procurement Manager.
All of the cylinders sent by Probiz were old. They had been covered with a new coat of paint to give the impression that they were new. Maldives Gas had spent USD$ 224 per cylinder.
So far, no legal charges have been laid against Ikram, nor has a criminal investigation been initiated.
Ikram is closely associated with many Parliamentarians. The MDP’s MP Abdullah Saneef (South Thinadhoo) is a close associate of his, for example. Ilyas Labeeb said that a Parliamentarian had joined Ikram in his Singapore trip.
The Maldives Journal has verified that this Parliamentarian had been MP Abdullah Saneef.
Ikram had reportedly bragged that his criminal activities would not be investigated.
This is the second such scandal involving medical equipment that the government has incurred since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Maldives. The Minister of Health, Abdullah Ameen, had resigned in the aftermath of a similar corruption scandal involving the fraudulent procurement of ventilators.