The Maldivian parliament has requested police for an Interpol red notice for the owner of Dubai based company Executors General Trading regarding the contract awarded to the company to supply Maldives with ventilators.
During the pandemic, in 2020, the Ministry of Health commissioned Executors General Trading to procure 75 ventilators. However, many of the machines were not delivered, and some of those delivered were in unusable condition.
Following international arbitration, the company was ordered to pay USD1.8 million to the Maldivian government as well as an additional USD 223,750 in liquidated damages. However, this payment has not been made to Maldives either.
Speaking to the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee on Monday regarding the situation, Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Ahmed Nazim told the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee that efforts to recover the funds have been unsuccessful, and the identity of the company owner remains unknown.
"The person's whereabouts are unknown. He has not responded. So, of course, it will be raised as a criminal case and the owner will be traced once a red notice is issued," he said.
He said if the individual is found, the government would be able to find out what was done with the money. It would also be clear whether the money was paid to others as bribes, he said.
Police said they were in talks with the Prosecutor General to decide on issuing the Interpol red notice to locate the company's owner.
The Public Accounts Committee had also, in March, requested the police to conduct a criminal probe against the Dubai company for failing to pay MVR 32 million to the Maldivian government.