MPL vows to contest ruling, mentions violations by Meridium

Maldives Ports Limited (MPL) has said it will appeal the temporary ruling by Civil Court banning any company other than Meridium Service Private Limited from supplying MPL with diesel, and claims Meridium was allowed to supply MPL with diesel without a bidding process.

Civil Court issued the temporary ruling last Tuesday, October 11.

The court cited an agreement made between Meridium and MPL on April 17, 2016 for supply of diesel to vehicles used by MPL in its site, as well as its vessels.

It said that Meridum therefore had legal grounds to ask for the temporary ruling.

MPL held a press conference this Wednesday to address the decision by the court, during which CEO of MPL, Mohamed Junaid said that Meridium had supplied diesel to the company without bidding, and that current MPL policy of supply of diesel was resulting losses to the company in the millions.

Meridium had claimed that it supplied diesel to MPL after winning the bid.

“Meridium supplies the diesel to this place. The diesel is supplied for MVR 12 per liter. The current market price we got after our announcement is MVR 6.90 per liter. So this is a massive loss to the government, the State,” said Junaid.

He said that Meridium was tasked with supplying diesel to MPL in April, 2015.

He said that during the billing process, 60,000 liters of diesel turns into 120,000 liters of diesel resulting in a loss of MVR 1.2 million per month, assuming that a liter of diesel is sold for MVR 12.

“Such a massive loss to the State must surely not be something the current president, President Yameen can condone,” said Junaid.

“When I probed into the matter, I discovered certain things which took place, believe it or not.

The diesel truck comes in here at midnight. And then it leaves, whether it has supplied the diesel or not,” he said.

Junaid said that MPL had built a diesel storage tank to solve the problem.

He said that Meridium did not follow the agreement to lower the price in accordance with drops in market price.

Junaid said he hoped courts would consider the massive loss the State was incurring before making any decision.

Meridium had filed the lawsuit against MPL, claiming the company was incurring massive losses due to MPL violating the agreement between the two companies and buying fuel from another supplier.

Civil Court issued a temporary ruling banning any company other than Meridium from supplying diesel to MPL until the issue is resolved in court.