The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has requested the Prosecutor General's Office (PG) to press charges against three former heads of the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) for obtaining undue advantage and helping to obtain undue benefit for a company with their interests through the "reagents" used in the laboratory during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
ACC wants to press charges against former IGMH CEO Ibrahim Saleem (Bandhu Saleem), former IGMH laboratory head Dr. Milza Abdul Muhsin and former Chairman of the Procurement Committee of the hospital Dr. Ali Abdulla Latheef.
The ACC has requested that the three be charged with abuse of official position.
Ali Latheef also served as a member of the Medical Executive Committee, Technical Advisory Committee and Technical Advisory Group formed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The ACC investigation revealed that the three had assisted in providing undue benefit to RMLS Lab Services. ACC has also referred a money laundering case against Ali Latheef to the police.
According to the business portal of the Economic Ministry, the laboratory is operated by a company called Pioneer Maldives. The shareholders of the company are Iqbal Shareef and Ibrahim Saeed Mohamed.
The company was formed in October 2020. The first case of Covid-19 was detected in the country in March 2020. After that, PCR tests became common throughout the country due to the mandatory testing required by the authorities.
In 2021, the Tourism Ministry announced the leasing of 16 islands for tourism development, of which one was leased to Pioneer Maldives. That is Gaafu Dhaalu Kandahalagalaa island.
In April 2022, the Tourism Ministry revealed that the island had been handed over when the company paid USD 2,800,000.00 as lease acquisition cost and USD 150,000.00 to the Tourism Training Fund. The progress of the 7.4 hectare island's development is unknown.
