President-Elect Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has said he would ask for the assistance of foreign investigative bodies to help trace missing funds in Maldives.
In an interview with US-based newspaper, Los Angeles Times, the president-elect said he would consider asking the FBI and other US agencies to unravel contract details of the outgoing government amid allegations that several billions of US dollars were embezzled from state funds. A senior State Department official told the newspaper the US government was prepared to help the incoming government of Maldives in any way.
The newspaper goes on to report that soon after the September 23 presidential election, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih met the Chinese ambassador and learned Maldives owed the Chinese government not USD 1.5 billion, as had been widely estimated, but nearly USD 3 billion, as a result of the five-year building spree by the outgoing government.
Citing people with knowledge of the contracts, the Los Angeles Times noted mega projects were conducted in Maldives at inflated prices that raised questions of graft.
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Maldives Ahmed Naseem told the paper the amount is huge and the government of Ibrahim Mohamed Solih needs the assistance of China to fully understand the details. Naseem said Maldivian authorities need to talk to China, not to cancel the agreements but to renegotiate the terms as the country is in need of the development.