MALE, 13 April, 2021 (TON): On Monday, while speaking in a press conference, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has denied that corruption was rife in his administration. 

President Solih’s party MDP’s leader and his long-term close friend and ally Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed and Economic Minister Fayyaz Ismail who also belongs to MDP have both attributed to the losses in the recent local council elections to corruption. 

The President said, “Corruption is old in the Maldives. It could still exist in every area after fading in whether it is the judiciary, government or independent institutions. It is also likely that it exists in other powers as well. We are doing what we have to do to amend this.”

“If corruption is there inside the government, we will do all we can to erase it. I am guaranteeing that we will do all we can to get rid of corruption. I will not say that there is corruption within the government to the extent that you are saying,” said President Solih. 

The President attributed a 40 percent increase in the corruption perception index in the most recent years to change brought in the administration.

The President said that regarding the ventilator scandal of the Health Ministry, the government had submitted the case to the Anti-Corruption Commission immediately upon the release of the Auditor General report. 

However, the President pledged that the government would keep on providing the full cooperation for the investigation in the matter but said that the government would not intervene in the ACC investigation.