Mariyam Zulfa robs Maldivians of 85 million dollars

Mariyam Zulfa, the recently appointed tourism minister, has robbed Maldivians of 85 million dollars. Minivan News report:

The Tourism Ministry has renewed the lease for Hudhufushi in Lhaviyani Atoll despite the resort island’s owner owing more than US$85 million in unpaid rent.

According to a 2009 audit report, Hudhufushi’s leasee Abdul Rauf owed US$57.7 million in unpaid rent to the government going back to 2002, the majority of the amount accumulated fines from years of non-payment.

The lease rent owned by the Hudhufushi resort is one of the government’s largest debtors in the tourism sector, and was noted in both the tourism ministry and trade ministry’s audit reports for 2007.

Under the original 35 year lease agreement signed between Rauf and the government in 2000, the resort was to open on June 30, 2002.

Former Auditor General Ibrahim Naseem, dismissed by parliament last year days after ordering past and present government ministers to submit to an audit of their assets, had recommended repossessing the island and establishing a mechanism to take legal action against tax evasion.

His audit suggested that at least Rf117 million (US$910,000) of the amount was recoverable.

Local media this week reported that the debt had climbed to US$85 million, and that the government had renewed the lease under a new agreement stating that the amount would be paid back starting from the 11th year of the agreement.

In addition, the agreement requires two payments of US$750,000 before June 1 and December 1 of this year, local newspaper Haveeru reported, or it will be terminated.

When rumours started in Male that Zulfa was to be appointed tourism minister, some websites and blogs speculated that she would be appointed because her brother is Mohamed Zuhair, the press secretary at president’s office. Who is Munavvar blog, which has at times taken up issues that we are also concerned with such as the high internet tariffs in the Maldives, was at the forefront of that speculation.

Zulfa was indeed appointed tourism minister but not because of her brother. Zuhair and Zulfa come from very different political backgrounds.

Zulfa is married to Sim Ibrahim Mohamed, who is the Secretary-General of Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI), the lobby group of the rich tourism tycoons. Sim has been filling that position for over a decade and he is the mouthpiece of the resort owners. Sim is also a member of the Hinnavaru clan which is getting more and more powerful in the current government. Those connections secured Zulfa a seat in cabinet.

In short, President Nasheed has handed over the Ministry of Tourism to resort owners from MATI by appointing Zulfa as tourism minister. Zulfa will make sure the riches of the Maldives tourism industry will go into the hands of a few people. In return, the powerful tourism tycoons will back Nasheed in his re-election bid for 2013.

The tourism tycoons backed General Maumoon Abdul Gayoom during his 30 years as dictator of Maldives. They funded his election campaigns. On national holidays newspaper pages were filled with ads from tourism tycoons sending greetings to “His Excellency Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and Madam Nasreena Gayoom.”

Mariyam Zulfa was rumoured to be a mistress for Gayoom. Whether these rumours are true or not, Zulfa remained a vocal supporter of Gayoom till recent days. When she was studying in Australia she sent threats and harassed Fareesha Abdulla and Michael O’Shea, the editors of the website Maldivesculture.com, which exposed the Gayoom regime.

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