'No corruption in SAARC safari rent', says ACC

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has concluded that there was no corruption in renting safaris to accommodate foreign missions that travelled to the Maldives to attend the 17th SAARC summit in 2011.

The safari rent case in particular was filed along with graft allegations against Addu City Mayor Abdul Sodiq which claim there were discrepancies in how the city council’s taskforce, charged with making preparations for the summit had allocated projects in violation of the state’s financial regulations.

The ACC’s decision came after having probed the allegations, and said that while the taskforce had rented out six safaris without announcing a bid – in violation of financial regulations – this was done out of necessity. The ACC highlighted how some of the visiting nations had made last-minute changes to their delegations which the initial accommodation arrangements would not have catered to.

Therefore, if the taskforce had followed procedure to the letter, Maldives would have been at the risk of being ill prepared and thus sullying the nation’s reputation.

The commission’s investigation had further found that the safaris were rented out a week into the summit, and the taskforce had acquired a special permit to rent the vessels.

Further, while the taskforce had paid a 50 percent advance for five of the six safaris, also in violation of financial regulations, it had only done so after filing the issue with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The safaris would not have agreed to service if the advance payments had not been made.

After having investigated the case, ACC concluded that the evidence does not conclusively prove that the taskforce had violated any clauses in the Anti-Corruption Act.

Opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed said last week that the graft allegations against Sodiq were a ‘cowardly’ attempt to sabotage his candidacy in the upcoming local council elections.