No connection to the two cases flagged for investigation: Mahloof

Former sports minister Ahmed Mahloof has denied any connection to two cases flagged for investigation in the latest Audit Office compliance report on the Ministry of Sports, and said that one case preceded his tenure and the other was unrelated to the ministry’s operations.

Audit Office’s 2018–2023 report ordered further investigation into two cases and raised concerns over procurement practices, including allegations of project splitting, facilitating corruption, and weakening state finances.

One case involved a football training school launched in 2018, jointly managed by the President’s Office, the Sports Ministry, and the Football Association of Maldives before Mahloof took office. The other concerned a vehicle purchase, which Mahloof said was linked to fraud by a contractor and had been reported to police by the ministry.

In a Facebook post, Mahloof said the report showed his team had performed well during his time in office.

“We were one of the ministries that ran the most number of projects. The fact that there were only two cases to investigate, neither of which occurred under us is proof the staff did a very good job,” he wrote.

The report also criticized the ministry for splitting projects that could have been awarded as a single contract. Mahloof defended the approach, saying it was legally permissible and often resulted in faster and cheaper outcomes.

“This government is also doing the work separately for that reason, I believe,” he added.

The auditors noted that an Excel file shared by the ministry listing project information was incomplete. Mahloof dismissed this as a documentation issue, not a lack of records.

“I don’t believe staff would deliberately leave documentation incomplete,” he wrote.

Responding to the audit’s observation that sports associations failed to maintain expenditure records, Mahloof said the cases referenced were from before his tenure. He said that funding to associations was provided on the condition that detailed spending reports were submitted.

Mahloof also criticized the delay in publishing the report, saying the seven-year gap limited opportunities for reform.

“An audit report should be issued annually. If it comes this late, especially for a ministry that carried out 576 projects, there’s no chance to address any issues.”

He added that the last meeting with auditors during his term raised no major issues and that no formal or informal recommendations for improvement had been made.

Mahloof also said that if there is any corruption involved it should be investigated.