MWSC chair suspended over corruption report
ACC's 776-page report, compiled in 2017, was publicized last Thursday
Ahmed Mausoom
Maldives Water and Sewerage Company (MWSC)’s chairman, Ahmed Mausoom is the latest to be suspended over the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC)’s report on the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations (MMPRC) embezzlement.
President’s Office spokesperson Ibrahim Hoodh confirmed this, saying that he was asked to “stay home” on Wednesday.
According to the report publicized last Thursday, two companies linked to the MWSC chairman had received funds from MMPRC. They are, CGT Private Limited and MC Maldives Private Limited.
Mausoom’s shares ownership of CGT Pvt Ltd with Abdulla Rafiu, Umar Jamaal and Ahmed Zahir.
While most of the MMPRC funds were transferred via a private company, SOF Pvt Ltd, the report shows that a total of USD 5.8 million was deposited to CGT Pvt Ltd; USD 4.9 million was deposited to the company account while an addition USD 800,000 was deposited to Mausoom’s private account.
ACC noted that “there is no evidence” that CGT Pvt Ltd or Abdulla Rauf had paid back SOF or MMPRC.
Furthermore, the report also noted that USD 328,052 had been deposited to MC Maldives, which the ACC said was transferred to UK’s Omnia Strategy “the same day.”
Omnia Strategy, established by the wife of UK’s former Prime Minister, represented the Maldives back in 2015. In an interview to The Daily Mail, owner of SOF Mohamed Allam Latheef admitted to paying Cherie Blair’s consultancy firm “on behalf of the government.”
While Allam is to have paid USD 210,000 to the HSBC account of Blair’s law firm, The Daily Mail reported that it was the first half of the USD 420,000 fee.
However, the Foreign Ministry denied this and claimed that Omnia Strategy was paid “from official government accounts through the finance ministry.”
SOF has links to former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb; he has been convicted for his involvement in the corruption scandal.
While USD 1.6 million was deposited to CGT Pvt Ltd’s Abdulla Rafiu’s personal account at the Bank of Ceylon, through SOF, Rafiu is an in law of the former VP.
