Maldives Independent: Maldives: Wednesday, August 15, 2018.
The Maldives
government has been unable to answer basic questions about a US$40 million
loan, including when it was granted and if the money is in place, despite
ministers announcing it a month ago.
On July 16,
hours after the European Union said it was imposing sanctions on the Maldives
over human rights abuses, two ministers said the country was getting a US$40
million loan from the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID).
There was no
record of a new US$40 million loan at the time of going to press from OFID,
which did not confirm or deny the funding existed.
OFID’s full
response to the Maldives Independent’s questions about the ministers’ remarks
can be found at the bottom of this article.
It does not
say if the Maldives received a US$40 million loan for the projects mentioned by
the ministers, when the Maldives last received OFID funding, what this funding
was for and what communication OFID had received from the Maldives about the
loan statement from the ministers.
The Maldives
Independent contacted the Housing Ministry and Environment Ministry with
questions about the loan, including when it was granted and why there was no
information about it on the OFID website, but no answers were available at the
time of going to press.
Right to
Information (RTI) requests were filed on Tuesday with these ministries to ask
when the US$40 million loan was approved, when it was granted, why there was
nothing about the loan on the OFID website, why OFID did not deny or confirm
the loan’s existence, if the loan exists or the ministers lied, and the start
and finish date for the projects to be funded by this loan.
According to
the Right to Information Act the ministries have 21 days, including weekends
and public holidays, to respond.
A senior
project coordinator at Transparency Maldives, Ahid Rasheed, previously said
there was “a general tendency to restrict information as much as possible, or
make it as hard as possible for the public to access information.”
Although the
Maldives RTI Act is “very progressive, the enforcement and implementation is
nowhere near to the spirit of that law,” he said.
Last December
five government ministries broke the law by not responding to RTI requests from
the Maldives Independent, which wanted to fact-check claims made by President
Abdulla Yameen.
A housing
ministry media official was contacted by phone and email about the US$40
million loan, but no response was given at the time of going to press.
A media
official for the environment ministry said he would be able to respond after
returning from an atoll tour with Yameen on Thursday.
OFID has a
US$159.6 million project portfolio in the Maldives.
There are 15
projects listed and four are ongoing: two are related to sanitation, one to
regional hospital development and the fourth to the development of the
Maldives’ main international airport.
The water and
sanitation projects began in March 2013 and December 2014, with combined
funding of more than US$73 million. The ministers said the money would be used
to fund harbour construction projects but no such OFID-backed projects are
ongoing.
Full OFID
response:
Please kindly
note that OFID does not disclose information pertaining to projects under
consideration.
However, we
would like to take this opportunity to mention that our organization maintains
a positive relationship with the government of the Maldives.
As a result
of this, nearly US$160m has been committed in public sector lending, covering
different areas, ranging from water and sanitation, transportation and health,
to agriculture, education and telecommunications, among others.
Funding has
also supported the country’s private sector. This funding includes loans and
lines of credit to the Maldives Finance Leasing Company; Wataniya Telecom
Maldives and Villa Shipping and Trading Company.
Under its
Trade Finance Facility, OFID has participated under the International Islamic
Finance Corporation’s syndication of US$25m to assist the State Trading
Organization, Maldives, in importing refined petroleum products. In addition,
grant funding has provided emergency aid for tsunami victims and supported
healthcare programs.
As you can
see, the relationship between OFID and the Maldives involves different
facilities with a variety of partners. Our organization supports developing
countries across the globe and new loans and grants are continually being
appraised and approved.
This process
is constant and dynamic. We encourage you to seek any clarification that you
may need with the government source that issued the initial statement. That
way, we will avoid creating any further confusion.