It is the end of April and still Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is yet to release their investigative report on the massive fraud of Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC). The ACC had set a self-declared deadline of April for the release of the said report.
ACC President Hassan Luthfee on March 9th declared the report will be issued in April. Back in 2015, he said the report will be released “soon”.
When questioned about the time for the release, ACC medial official said that he had no comment at the time.
The audit report issued by the Auditor General had revealed that MVR 1.22 billion of state funds was embezzled through the state owned corporation.
As such, US$ 65.01 million (MVR 1 billion) was deposited to private accounts, US$ 6.31 million (MVR 97.3 million) as dollar transactions, US$ 6.15 million (MVR 94.8 million) released as loans to private companies and an additional US$ 1.90 million (MVR 29 million) released to private companies on undisclosed reasons all had been grafted from the corporation.
The MMPRC Audit Report, 59 areas had been leased from MMPRC for development as tourist hotels, yatch marinas and other projects. This included 53 areas released under agreement with Tourism Ministry and MMPRC, while the rest six were released without an agreement with Tourism Ministry.
This translates to US$ 98.86 million (MVR 1.5 billion) as acquisition costs, out of which only US$ 76.91 million (MVR 1.22 billion) had been recorded as received by the Corporation.
US$ 65.01 million had been deposited to private accounts from the Corporation, while only US$ 12.50 million had been deposited to MMPRC accounts. The report shows that an additional US$ 300,000 had been received from Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA).
The report further notes that US$ 1.8 million worth of cheques was accepted, but not deposited to any accounts.
Opposition political figures and civil society bodies have condemned the delays in publishing the report on the biggest graft in the nation’s history. However, ACC said the delays were caused following the Al-Jazeera expose “Stealing Paradise”, which had brought forward more areas to investigate. In spite of this assertion, opposition members allege that the delays were caused by political pressures. Raajje.mv understands that months have lapsed since the report had been fully investigated and sent to Commission members.
ACC is also reportedly investigating Member of Parliament for Huvarafushi Constituency, who had claimed that he had disbursed the proceeds from MMPRC to Parliament Members.
