Nexbis gave laptops as “bribes” in border control project: ACC
09 Jan 2014, 8:01 PM
Zaheena Rasheed
Malaysian security firm Nexbis offered laptops as “bribes” to the Department of Immigration and Emigration’s staff to proceed with a border control project, the Anti- Corruption Commission has said.
In a statement today, the ACC said Nexbis had given 14 inch Lenovo laptops to senior staff at the Department of Immigration on May 10, 2012 in order to “increase Immigration staff’s interest for the project, and to obtain their cooperation so that Nexbiz could proceed with the project.”
The government signed a concession with Nexbis in 2010 to install and operate a border control system. However, in 2011 the ACC ordered the government to terminate the contract claiming that then-Immigration Controller Ilyas Hussain Ibrahim and a Finance Ministry official had abused their authority for undue financial gain in awarding Nexbis the MVR500 million (US$39 million) project.
Nexbiz appealed the commission’s order at the Civil Court. While the Civil Court ruled the ACC did not have the authority to terminate the contract, the High Court later overturned the lower court’s ruling.
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