- Blacklisted Chinese firms being awarded contracts.
- Contract rates inflated to satisfy the ‘needs’ of top Govt. officials!
- Corruption being spread from top to bottom in the Govt. by China!
- Long term plan of ‘economical enslaving’ of Maldives by China!
As recently as yesterday, the Maldives Govt. (or more appropriately Yameen Govt.) announced that the project to design and develop the link road connecting the airport island of Hulhule and reclaimed suburb Hulhumale will be awarded to Hunan Construction Engineering Group of China for USD 24 million (MVR 370 million). The China-Maldives Friendship Bridge and the link road are major development projects undertaken by the government to connect the capital, airport and suburb with land transportation. As at present, people use ferries to commute between the two. HDC had said in a statement released last February that the contractor is to bear all the costs of the link road project, which will be reimbursed by the government on a later date. Although, the details regarding the reimbursement plan were not disclosed by the Govt., as always!
But, Yameen is not a president for the people of Maldives and any action or decision taken by his Govt. needs scrutiny. As has happened in the past, with the development of 5,000 housing units in Hulhumale housing project being awarded to a dubious, non-existing and blacklisted Turkish firm, Ozturk Holdin. “Game of Contracts” is being played by President Yameen’s corrupt Government, by awarding contracts to dubious companies (and dubious ‘countries’ as well) and making a hefty commission on the dealings and robbing the people of Maldives of their hard earned money. Refer to the link _TRUTH behind “Game of Contracts” by Yameen Government EXPOSED!!!. No development takes place in Maldives without the personal ‘development’ of Yameen and his bank accounts.
Yet again Yameen has done the same. In the instant case, thorough research and investigation on the background of the firm, China Hunan Construction Engineering Group Corporation (CHCEGC), has revealed startling facts. CHCEGC was awarded the rural electrification project in Ghana (Africa), which has over the years been embroiled in controversies. The report on the project by the Auditor General of Ghana revealed that the national electrification project, which cost the taxpayers of Ghana millions of dollars, was executed with substandard poles and leaking transformers. The nationwide audit by the Auditor General’s Department had revealed lots of shoddy work, poor project supervision, and underhand dealings in the execution of the project. It was also discovered that statistics on projects in the rural electrification project are misleading especially the projects have not been completed yet classified as completed and vice versa.
Further, not just the shamble work done by the company but also it was found that the project was overpriced to the tune of $9 million, exposing the nefarious activities undertaken by CHCEGC, to get the project. These accusations were confirmed by the Ghanaian actress and TV Host, Selassie Ibrahim, who owns a company named Smartty’s Management and Productions Limited of Ghana. In a statement, Smartty’s Management and Productions Limited has said it only provided PR services to the China Hunan Construction Engineering Group but was not party to the ‘overpriced’ $92 million deal between the Chinese firm and the Government of Ghana. It said “Our client dissociate themselves from the execution of an any such contract between the government of Ghana and the other indicated party, China Hunan Construction Engineering Group”. This completely exposed the nexus between the Ghana Govt. and the nefarious activities of the Chinese firm.
Not just withstanding its deeds in Ghana, the CHCEGC was again involved in various scandals in Tanzania. According to information from the Tanzania National Roads Agency (TANROADS), in the past 10 years, 14 Chinese companies, including CHCEGC, have entered 58 roads construction projects of 3,140.85km long worth US$ 1.75 billion in Tanzania. Later a complaint was filed by the Tanzania Transport Sector Support Project to the World Bank stating that CHCEGC engaged in fraudulent practices in connection with its bid for a Bank-financed road rehabilitation contract by submitting forged corporate experience documents. Based on a review of INT’s (Integrity Vice Presidency’s) SAE (The Statement of Accusations and Evidence) conducted in accordance with Section 4.0 I (a) of the Sanctions Procedures, and pursuant to Section 4.0l(c), Section 9.01 and Section 9.04 of the Sanctions Procedures, with due consideration of the factors set forth in Section 9.02 of the Sanctions Procedures and in the World Bank Sanctioning Guidelines, the World Bank recommended CHCEGC (together with any entity that is an Affiliate directly or indirectly controlled by CHCEGC be declared ineligible (i) to be awarded or otherwise benefit from a Bank-financed contract, financially or in any. other manner, (ii) to be a nominated sub-contractor, consultant, manufacturer or supplier, or service provider of an otherwise eligible firm being awarded a Bank-financed contract, and (iii) to receive the proceeds of any loan made by the Bank or otherwise to participate further in the preparation or implementation of any project or program financed by the Bank and governed by the Bank’s Procurement Guidelines, Consultant Guidelines or Anti-Corruption Guidelines.
On these scams by China in Africa, Rev. Mwamalanga, an economist and human rights activist had stated that “China is not a reliable partner. It will abandon Africa as soon as its needs are met. China is not a philanthropist but rather maneuvering to woo and buy the African good will,” He argues that by pursuing and practicing non-interference policy, China is indirectly destroying the democratic dispensation in Africa which will eventually lead to massive corruption and human rights violations among other woes. He accuses China for grabbing exclusively huge natural resources while dumping only sub-standard products in Africa, emphasizing that the only motive behind Chinese activities in Africa is to serve its own national interests.
After learning about such dubious track record of China and its firms, our investigative journalists went on to dig more into the contract being awarded to the firm. It has been revealed by inside sources (name not provided on the request of anonymity by the insider), that the same nefarious activities were undertaken by the Chinese firm to get the project and ‘PR agents’ are working within the Maldives Govt., to get Chinese firms the projects. These ‘PR agents’ are well placed in the Govt. and work on ‘handsome’ commissions for the Chinese firms. Who are these ‘PR agents’ can be anyone guess. But, one thing is for sure Yameen gets the maximum cut out of these ‘Chinese projects’.
On further probing of these dubious ‘Chinese projects’, another startling fact was revealed by our insider. It has been learnt that toll on the China-Maldives Friendship bridge will be collected by the China for the next 20 years, without a share of penny for the Maldives Govt. This means that the people of Maldives will be at the mercy of China for using the bridge. Also, the maintenance cost, after the completion of the project, will be bore entirely by the Maldivian Govt. And to add to this, the loan of interest for the project is levied by China @5%, whereas the same loan could have been taken from World Bank @1.5%. But, inspite of lower interest rates given by World Bank, China was chosen to be the lender.
All this leaves us with lots of unanswered questions. Why is China being favoured than any other country or organization despite the fact that loans from China are at a higher rate of interest? What does it gives to the Maldivian Govt. that others don’t? What nexus is there between the present Maldives Govt. and China? Why all the contracts are awarded to Chinese firms inspite of them having a bad track record? These facts has been purposefully kept under wraps by the Govt. But why? Answer is simple, Yameen is selling whatever possible to China and will run away eventually.
The same modus operandi as in Africa, is now being followed by China in Maldives. China is very tactfully and slowly and gradually, leading Maldives into chaos through these ‘closed, behind the door, deals’ being done in the name of development. After 10 years to come to this country, could be another ‘China State’ full of Chinese people, as can be seen by the increase in number of Chinese tourists. As people of Maldives wait for the ‘Dragon’ to spit fire, the combination of Yameen and China will sink Maldives in the depths of ocean, from where there will be no coming back.
Refer to the Link
Notice of Uncontested Sanctions Proceedings October 1, 2013 SanctionsCase No.268
$92m saga: Smartty’s only provided PR services
Revealed: Smarttys allegedly overpriced electrification project by $9m
