President

It has been revealed that the import duty was cut for some items for the Rf600m border control system case, which is suspected of involving corruption, following permission by President Waheed.

A letter signed by Cabinet Secretary Abdullah Nazeer and addressed to Finance Minister Abdullah Jihad, sent by the President’s Office on 7 May, states that the Department of Immigration had requested the Office to cut the import duty for the computer hardware and accessories necessary for the border control system project, and that the President had made the decision to cut the duty for these items under article (b) of the import-export act.

“It is requested that the import duty issue be arranged according to regulations, following the President’s decision,” reads the letter.

This letter is leaked at a time when Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is investigating the case of sixty laptops having been provided to Immigration Department by Nexbiz. The project has been temporarily halted following a high court order.

Immigration Department signed the agreement with Nexbiz after ACC had notified to halt the project, subsequent to suspicion of corruption being involved in the project.

The border control project was assigned to Nexbiz to allow them to charge $2 on every passenger arriving in and departing from Maldives for the next 25 years, and $15 on every person who applies for or renews visa.