Upholding initial ‘Nasandhura’ agreement would have made USD 4M: ACC

The state would have benefited significantly if the first agreement to lease the plot occupied by the Nasandhura Palace Hotel had been upheld, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has said.

The ACC says the state could have generated about USD 4 million if the agreement was not dissolved; the Tourism Ministry had initially leased the plot to Galaxy Enterprises for a period of eight years.

However, the agreement was dissolved in 2015 and the plot, along with one adjacent to it, was transferred to the state-run Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC).

A day after said transfer, the plot was again leased to NPH Investments, a company in which former president Abdulla Yameen’s brother-in-law had been a stakeholder. ACC found that NPH Investments was also given leasehold rights to the plots; the bearer of such rights can typically consider the plot to be personal property. ACC also says that the entire deal, to have the two plots leased to NPH Investments for a 50-year period, was expedited and signed without public tender, a violation of local tourism laws.

The corruption watchdog announced on Monday that they are to again investigate allegations of graft in leasing out plot for development into a five-star hotel.

A rendered model of what the new hotel would look like

The ACC had previously highlighted several concerns about the deal as well, which implicated senior members of the then government and forwarded it to the Prosecutor General’s Office.

However, prosecutors dismissed the case in August on the basis that the agreement signed then had been valid and that there are no grounds to pursue legal action.

The Housing Ministry has held former vice president, and then tourism minister, Ahmed Adeeb responsible for losses suffered due to the ‘unlawful’ transfer of the plot and ordered him to pay USD 4.8 million.

Amid the ensuing controversy instigated by the ‘MMPRC embezzlement’ coming to surface, the project has now been given to Zhongtian Construction, a subsidiary of the Chinese Zhongtian Development Holding Group, one of the nation’s largest companies.

The Nasandhura Palace Hotel, which stood in the plot, had been one of Maldives' oldest tourist outlets and is prime real-estate in capital city Malé, sitting exactly in front of the harbour where vessels from the airport dock.