The Minister of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, Mohamed Aslam has been assigned temporarily to run the Health Ministry.

The announcement of the reassigning was made by the Spokesperson of the President’s Office, Ibrahim Hoodh.

His Tweet said that President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has temporarily assigned Minister Mohamed Aslam with the responsibility of running the Ministry of Health.

The change has been made after Health Minister Abdulla Ameen was suspended following an investigation regarding the compliance audit report of the Health Ministry.

The audit report in question states that when Dubai-based Executors General Trading LLC was contracted with MVR 34,502,250 to bring in 75 ventilators without verifying their technical and financial capabilities.

However, the Health Ministry documents and the documents sent by the ministry to other government bodies describe the company to be a WHO recommended supplier.

The report states that the Finance Executive of the Health Ministry send a memo to Bid Committee on 1 April saying that the Executors General Trading after a recommendation from the discussions between the Health Ministry and the WHO Country Representative and had email a list of the brands of the ventilators being supplied by the company.

Under the agreement signed with the Executors General Trading LLC, the Health Ministry, with the approval of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury, paid 90 percent of the payment in advance which amounts to MVR 30.9 million but did not acquire a guarantee for the advance as per the state’s financial regulation.

The report further stated that 65 of the 75 ventilators acquired through Executors General Trading LLC are ICU ventilators at a rate of MVR 501,150; a more expensive price than those agreed with local companies.

The report also said that MVR 32.9 million has been paid in advance to the State Trading Organization (STO) to acquire PPE kits which has yet to be delivered.