MALE: Dhivehi Qaumee Party has filed a case against Ministry of Finance and Treasury. The party filed a case against the government ministry on 17 November of this year. This was revealed at a press yesterday afternoon by the secretary general of DQP, Abdullah Ameen. They are suing the ministry for not responding to a letter of inquiry sent by the party to the ministry. The issues that DQP addressed in this letter of inquiry include finding out if the Minister of Finance Ali Hashim and the State Minister of Finance or other senior officials of the ministry had made any official visits abroad till 23 June 2009 and if there was any official visits, to provide them the details of those trips.

The letter also sought to find out if President Mohamed Nasheed had fulfilled his promise about putting back USD 359 million he said that he would take or need for running the government in the first three months as the President of the Maldives. According to DQP, President had pledged that Maldives would earn back USD 359 million within 20 days of his Presidency. DQP’s letter asked how much money Maldives earned within 6 months of President Nasheed’s presidency.

The letter also inquired several aspects of Gan Airports Company Limited, Gulhifalhu industrial zone limited and Southern Utilities Limited. This includes the salary of board of directors, wealth or capital of these companies, number of employees and their salaries, companies address and also its basic working regulation.

DQP’s letter to the Finance Ministry also wanted to find out who were given cars by the state and under what principle of policy they were given these cars.

General Secretary of DQP Ameen said that the Finance Ministry had not responded to any of the questions asked in the letter of inquiry or now, the charge sheet. Ameen also said that DQP had informed Finance Ministry well in advance that they will sue the ministry if the ministry fails to respond to DQP’s queries.

Noting that government institutions other than Finance Ministry had as well, not responded to letters of inquiry sent to them by DQP, Ameen said that his party plans on suing those government institutions as well.

He further noted that President’s Office was most fourth coming in providing information and responding to DQP’s letters but added that their efforts of finding out the expense of President Nasheed’s recent trip to New York has been unsuccessful.

In the Democracy Fair that ended last week, DQP had on display two large files and the representatives from DQP who were at the stall kept on telling the visitors to the stall that those files contained letters sent to the government agencies which has still gone unanswered. There were about 40 letters on display on both files combined.