Former Chairperson of the Tender Board Ismail Zariyand has said that individual ministers must be investigated in connection with the corruption involving the distribution of 206 projects without bidding.
The 206 projects were distributed to private companies without bidding and without any transparency to fulfil President Mohamed Muizzu's pledges.
The government has been accused of violating the fiscal law by signing the project agreements. Social media users denounced it as an outrageous looting of the state.
Zariyand, an expert with years of experience at the Audit Office and the Finance Ministry, said in a post on social media X that this is financially damaging to the state.
He said the corruption allegations should be investigated separately against each minister in the current cabinet.
He added that Section 10.22 of the Finance Rules has been amended four times since Muizzu came to power. The changes were made to allow the cabinet to award projects without bidding.
With the change, companies will not have to offer a project guarantee. However, the 53 companies which got projects on Thursday will be paid 15 percent of the project cost in advance.
The government claims the projects are contractor financed. But in reality, loans have been arranged through the national bank, Bank of Maldives (BML) at nine percent interest rates. In case the companies do not repay the loans, the government will have to face the obligation.
Zariyand said some of the companies were inactive and in the process of liquidation, while some companies with projects worth over MVR 100 million did not have the experience and financial capacity.
He added that some companies were not on the contractors register of the Housing Ministry and had no proof of doing such work.
On Thursday, 206 projects worth MVR 2.7 billion were awarded to 53 private companies. Many of the projects were awarded to government-affiliated parties. Among them, companies belonging to five ruling party MPs have been awarded projects worth MVR 746 million.
