[14] Despite written promises to reimburse participants for travel and expenses, as well as paying the hosting and production costs, in order to improve Ethiopia's poor international image at their own expense,[15][16][17] Mohamouda Ahmed Gaas and officials from the Ministry simply refused to honor these commitments once the girls came to Ethiopia and the pageant took place,[18] citing poverty.

The hosting fee for Miss Tourism of the Millennium was also apparently never paid, and over US$250,000 in sponsorship money collected from local sponsors on instructions of Mohamouda Ahmed Gaas the Chairman of the fund-raising committee disappeared from the account.

After two years of diplomatic negotiations with the Ministry and the Ethiopian Ambassador to the UK Ambassador Berhanu Kebede, in December 2009 in an unprecedented and landmark legal action, the company commenced formal legal action in the Royal Courts of Justice[28] to recover the missing money and for breach of contract against the Ministry and Mohamouda Ahmed Gaas.

In the High Court of Justice, Queens Bench Division, seeking a total payment of US$1,022,810.52, comprising US$488.500.00 principal debt and US$543,310.52 interest and late fees.

[33][34][35] State run Ethiopian Television also made a documentary about this controversial pageant titled Ethiopian beauty contest that went wrong, available and posted on YouTube,[36][37] in which unusual in a country like Ethiopia, contestants, former queens and models openly criticized the Minister Mohamed Dirir, and state Minister Mohamouda Ahmed Gaas and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism for once again modeling in beauty pageants, and this time going as far as supporting a known con man, who had previously cheated so many people, and had no track record in the pageant industry, instead of focusing on promoting tourism which is their core objective and mandate.