Action will be taken over health ministry audit report: President's Office

While a report compiled by the Auditor General’s Office regarding Ministry of Health’s Covid-19 related expenditure has revealed possible corruption, the President’s Office has assured that required action will be taken against those responsible.

Ibrahim Hood, Chief Communications Strategist at the President’s Office, told RaajjeMV that the government will not hesitate to take subsequent action against those responsible “regardless of those involved,” once the audit report is officially submitted.

The Auditor General’s Office has ordered an investigation into the health ministry’s decision to contract Dubai-based Executors General Trading to import 75 ventilators, as part of the government’s work to strengthen the country’s health care system amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Executors General Trading was awarded a MVR 34 million contract to import ventilators.

While the now dissolved National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) officials as well as Health Minister Abdulla Ameen had previously said that authorities were following the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) with close cooperation with its country office in Covid-19 related actions, the audit report states that WHO officials had denied endorsing the company.

Further, while the health ministry had in a letter to the Ministry of Finance as well as the Parliament, indicated that Executors General Trading was on a list recommended by WHO, the audit report says that there was no evidence of such a list by WHO, recommending the Dubai-based company.

Former NEOC spokesperson and the undersecretary of communications at the President’s Office, Mohamed Mabrook Aziz also called for an investigation into the matter.

While Mabrook had been the one who had met with the media to provide updates to the public on all Covid-19 related matter prior to the dissolution of NEOC, he on Sunday said that he had ensured that all information conveyed “was verified by the relevant ministries.”

Noting that this was to the “extent of sharing contracted company names, payment details and delivery dates,” Mabrook noted that the Auditor General’s report “is an important step towards establishing accountability and transparency” and added that “all officials of the government should be held accountable irrespective of their position.”