The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has deemed that there was corruption in the Islamic Ministry’s evaluation process for Hajj agencies licensed to carry pilgrims to Mecca, Saudi Arabia this year.

The ACC had on Tuesday, announced the results of an investigation into corruption allegations against the Islamic Ministry, which it embarked on two weeks ago.

Sixteen agencies had submitted proposals this year, of which six were licensed. The licenses were given based on points assigned after the Islamic Ministry evaluated the proposals.

The ACC’s statement on Tuesday said that while ministry officials had shared categories for evaluation, and the criteria under which the points would be allocated, at a pre-bid meeting – the results of the evaluation indicate that the agreed criteria had not been adhered to.

At the pre-bid meeting, ministry officials had said that 50 percent of the points would be allocated based on the quality of service. While the quality of service was named to be a category, points were given divided upon sub-categories that the Hajj agencies were are even now not privy to.

The ACC said that given how some of the agencies that submitted proposals were not privy to what the sub-categories are, they were unable to submit the information required to score in said sub-categories.

Therefore, the commission found that the evaluation process had been unjust and named that some of the agencies had clearly been disqualified because they were unable to include, in their proposals, details relevant to sub-categories. Based on this, the ACC concluded that the evaluation criteria are void.

The commission called on the Islamic Ministry to reevaluate all proposals and to establish a new evaluation committee, explicitly asking that it does not include the ministry’s staff.

Concerns in the evaluation process surfaced following an audio leak where an official believed to be from the Ministry of Islamic Affairs is heard saying that he carries considerable influence in the services extended by Umrah and Hajj pilgrimage agents.

In the audio, the official is heard saying that he has enough connections to license pilgrim agents of his choosing at any given time.

The state operated Maldives Hajj Corporation was given permission to carry 50 percent of the 1,000-pilgrim quota allocated to the Maldives by the Saudi Arabian government. The remaining five companies were licensed to carry just 100 pilgrims each.

A week after ACC began its probe, Askoi Investments, one of the agencies that had made its proposal this year, filed a case against the Islamic Ministry with the Civil Court.