GMR gets respite in Male airport controversy

In a relief for GMR, the Maldives’ anti-graft watchdog is believed to have ruled out any corruption in the leasing of Ibrahim Nasir International Airport here to the Indian infrastructure major by the previous administration.

The current Maldivian government had in December last year unilaterally terminated a 500 million USD contract given to GMR Group to develop and operate Male Airport, a project awarded to the Indian group by the earlier Mohamed Nasheed administration.

Local media reports today said the Anti-Corruption Commission’s (ACC) 61-page investigation report into the alleged corruption in the leasing of the country’s only operational international airport to GMR by the previous administration has declared there was no corruption involved in GMR’s bid during the evaluation phase of the deal.

According to the probe report, GMR had offered the highest concession fee and scored the highest marks in the bid to develop and operate the airport for 25 years.

The report also said concrete records exist to show that a concession agreement was signed between the government, GMR consortium and Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) which ruled out any grounds for corruption, the media reports said.
ACC further said as the agreement was signed before the amendments to the Financial Act passed by the Parliament was gazetted, there was no grounds to declare it as corruption.