MVR 287m can be recovered from completed MMPRC probes: ACC
ACC Vice President Abdul Salam said that investigations are underway in 56 cases related to the massive scam.
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) said on Monday that it has concluded its investigation into 25 cases of corruption committed during former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom's administration through the leasing of islands and lagoons for tourism development via state-owned MMPRC.
Members of the parliament's independent institutions committee on Monday met with the ACC to discuss the previous year's work and gave detailed information about the progress of the investigation into the massive scandal.
ACC President Adam Shameel assured the committee that the MMPRC case was the top priority of the ACC and said that the ACC had only six months to conduct the investigation after completing the process of transferring all aspects of the investigation conducted by the Asset Recovery Commission to the ACC. Pointing out that they had done well in those six months, Shameel said:
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As many as 25 cases have been disposed of
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13 cases have been clubbed together and sent requests for recovery of money and prosecution
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12 cases have now been scheduled for a meeting of members to decide on the course of action
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Chargesheet in eight cases is currently in the duty prosecution stage with the PGs
ACC Vice President Abdul Salam said that investigations are underway in 56 cases related to the massive scam.
Giving details of the amount of money the state can recover from the pending cases, Shameel said:
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The state is due USD 16 million
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MVR 38.2 million is owed the state
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To raise a total of MVR 287.3 million
When some members of the committee asked how confident they were that they would be able to recover the money lost in the MMPRC case, Commission President Shameel said that recovering the money lost to the state was not the power of the ACC under the law. All the ACC can do, he said, is to ask agencies to recover the money that the state has lost.
He, however, said the agency was now formulating a set of guidelines on how to act next if the directions to recover the money were not complied with. Stating that the policy will be made public soon, Shameel said the steps to be taken in the policy will be clearly spelled out.
"There are questions in it. However, if the agencies do not comply with our directive to recover the money, we will soon make public the policy of taking action and will continue to look into it," Shameel said.
At the end of the committee's meeting, committee chair Rozaina Adam of Addu Meedhoo constituency said that it was noted that ACC was doing a good job in the MMPRC corruption investigation. She demanded that the investigations in the case be completed at the earliest.
Rozaina assured that if there is no cooperation from the PG or the institutions, the committee will try to expedite it.
