ACC says readying charges in 14 MMPRC corruption cases

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) said on Monday that it had expedited the investigation into the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) corruption scandal that took place during former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom's administration and is ready to file charges for 14 cases.

When its members were summoned to the parliament's budget committee to seek their views on the budget allocated to ACC for next year, many of the committee members were concerned that investigations into big scandals were getting delayed. The members also expressed concern over the failure of the probe to yield results despite an additional MVR 4 million spent last year.

Responding to these concerns, ACC President Adam Shamil said that a special department comprising 12 investigators has been set up to investigate the MMPRC scandal with the MVR 4 million that was added to the budget last year. Shamil said that after the change of ACC members, the entire team would be overhauled and apart from 12 investigators, a head would be appointed to the department to oversee the work.

"With these changes, we are confident that we will be able to draw results from the cases currently being investigated and the ones that have been framed ahead. The difference will be more pronounced next year than this year," Shamil said.

"In addition to what has been done in the past, we are also finding new things and advances through the investigation." 

Giving more details of the MMPRC investigation, Vice President Abdul Salam said that the commission is investigating 51 cases related to the MMPRC scandal at one go. Giving details of how the cases have been investigated, he said:

"In the next couple of months, the public will also be able to see that the results of the investigation are coming out. Compared to the past, MMPRC’s investigations are going on at a faster pace," Salam said.

He explained how the investigating team's approach was:

Some members questioned whether the investigation was not going well because of the interference of the government or others.

Responding to the query, ACC president Shamil said there is no interference from anyone to conduct the investigation in a particular manner. He added that from the time the now-disbanded Asset Recovery Commission handed over the case to the ACC alone, they have been doing the needful for speedy disposal of the cases. He said a proper mechanism has now been put in place for speedy disposal of cases.

"Neither the government nor anyone else has any influence on us to take up MMPRC cases in a particular way," Shamil said.

ACC Vice President Salam said it was still not the responsibility of the ACC to recover the money lost to the state. He said there was no mechanism in the country to recover the money lost from a scam.

Salam said the process of setting up such a system was being taken up on a priority basis by the ACC. He also said that since such lost money has been invested in various foreign locations, agreements are being made to work with various foreign agencies to recover the money.

Salam said a mechanism has now been put in place within the ACC to monitor the recovery of money sought by the state after the investigation. He added that the section would look into the compliance of the recommendations made by the ACC, which constitutes a monitoring and evaluation section, and encourage the implementation of the recommendations made by the state agencies.

The investigation into the MMPRC scandal was first carried out in collaboration with the Asset Recovery Commission established by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, ACC and police. In 2021, the agency told the budget committee that 38 cases related to the scandal had been decided.

Earlier, the ACC members were transferred following allegations that they had failed to deliver results in the case.