A case has been sent to the Prosecutor General’s (PG) Office, against former Minister of Finance Mohamed Shihab and former Chairman of Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) Bandhu Ibrahim Saleem regarding the decision to deduct $27 of Airport Development Charge and Insurance Surcharge from the concession fees payable to MACL by GMR.
A statement released by the Anti-Corruption Commission today states that MACL had agreed to deduct an amount from the concession fees payable by GMR to MACL equal to the loss that would be incurred by GMR as a result of the decision by the court that GMR cannot collect Airport Development Charge and Insurance Surcharge.
The statement says that the decision to deduct the amount from the concession fees was against the normal business policies of the company, and that it was a decision that would reduce the company’s revenues.
It says that while a resolution must exist regarding the decision by the Board of Directors of the company on who should sign the ‘concession letter’, the company Chairman Bandhu Ibrahim Saleem agreed to deduct the amount from the concession fees in violation of the company regulations.
Moreover, it says that the decision resulted in losses to MACL, as it was made against the procedure stipulated for rectifying the political event situation described in the agreement, and also without making full use of the 90-day period allowed for this purpose.
The statement says that Bandhu Saleem is accused of having used his post to confer undue advantage to a particular group when he signed the ‘consent letter’ two days after MACL sent the letter to GMR regarding the agreement.
According to the statement, the PG had been requested to sue former Minister of Finance Mohamed Shihab and former Chairman of Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) Bandhu Ibrahim Saleem for MVR353.8 million, which is the loss incurred by the government between October 2011 and September 2012 due to the permission given by the two individuals to GMR via the ‘concession letter’, to deduct Airport Development Charge and Insurance Surcharge from the concession fees payable by GMR to MACLas per the concession agreement.