Official accused of corruption appointed to human rights watchdog

The parliament today appointed a former government official accused of defrauding the state of MVR24million (US$1.55million) to the Human Rights Commission of Maldives (HRCM).

President Abdulla Yameen nominated Moosa Ali Kaleyfaanu along with Naiveen Abdulla to the five-member independent commission earlier this month. He is among eight senior National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) employees implicated in fraudulent transactions involving fake credit purchase order forms.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) completed an investigation into the scam in 2013 and forwarded charges to the Prosecutor General’s Office for prosecution, which has yet to formally press corruption charges.

Moosa Ali’s nomination was approved with 45 votes in favour, seven votes against, and two abstentions, whilst Naiveen Abdulla was approved unanimously with 60 votes in favour.

Last week, President Yameen appointed three new members to the HRCM, including former ruling party MP Shifaq Mufeed, Aminath Eenas, and Aishath Afreen Mohamed, the wife of current ruling party MP Hussain Mohamed Latheef, following parliamentary approval for the nominees on August 11.

The five-year terms of the previous five HRCM members expired this month. None of the incumbents sought reappointment when the president’s office invited interested candidates to apply last month.

At today’s sitting, the parliament also appointed former HRCM member Dr Ali Shameem as the new president of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and Jameela Ali as the vice president with 61 votes and 63 votes in favour, respectively.

Shameem and Zakariyya Hussain took their oaths of office at a ceremony held at the president’s office last week. The parliament has invited interested candidates to apply for one more vacancy on the five-member commission by 5:00pm today.