Charges raised against Ilyas and Saamee regarding border control issue

State has raised charges against the former Controller of Immigration Ilyas Hussain Ibrahim and former Finance Ministry head of tender evaluation section Director General Saamee Ageel for allegations of conferring undue advantage through use of influence from position, regarding the controversial border control system issue, a project that was handed over to a Malaysian company Nexbis. Ilyas Hussain is brother-in-law to President Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik.

Media Official for the Prosecutor General’s Office Hussain Naashid said that Ilyas and Samee have both been charged conferring undue advantage through use of influence from position. He said that Illyas’s case was submitted to the Criminal Court today, while Saamee’s case was submitted yesterday.

Anti-Corruption Commission’s (ACC) statement following the investigation of the case stated during the bidding process, the Request for Proposal (RFP) submitted to the Ministry of Finance by Immigration was not the proposal approved by the National Planning Council.

ACC statement stated that changes were made to the National Planning Council approved RFP , where 7 of the 14 modules were changed before it was submitted to the Ministry. The letter that accompanied the proposal was signed by former Controller Ilyas, and the statement noted that he did not have the authority to bring changes to the proposal.

The statement also highlighted discrepancies in awarding points during the evaluation of the Expression of Interest (EoI), and that certain parties were graded higher than others to allow them an unfair disadvantage.

The statement noted that the second team assembled to evaluate the technical aspects of the border control system had purposefully manipulated the evaluation, and that his was done carried out under the authority of Saamee Ageel.