State TV sacks finance head over MVR 4 million scam
She said that when she took office, the company had only seven Rufiyaa in its treasury and not a single dollar in its dollar account.
By
Aishath Fareeha Abdulla
State owned Public Service Media (PSM) has sacked the head of the company's finances for alleged irregularities in transactions to buy dollars.
PSM Managing Director Zeena Zahir told a news conference on Wednesday that the move was taken after noticing that a large amount of money was being deposited to buy dollars from a private individual from 2020 onwards.
Zeena said the employee who was then the company's finance chief had been suspended since 29th last month to investigate the alleged case.
The company's internal audit committee and Strategic Human Resource Management Division (SHRMD) committee have investigated the matter and the employee has been dismissed on 19th of this month under the company's rules and regulations, she said.
"We have shared this with the relevant government agencies. We sent a letter to the audit office last month requesting a special audit," she said.
She also said:
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An audit of transactions made from 2017 to this month has been conducted
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The dollar purchase transaction involved a criminal case that was reported to the police and is being investigated
“There are more than four million Rufiyaa that have been deposited [from 2020] to buy dollars and have not been received by the company for the past four years,” she said.
She said that when she took office, the company had only seven Rufiyaa in its treasury and not a single dollar in its dollar account.
“When we looked into this case, we also noticed integrity issues of the then finance head,” she said.
She said she had received information that the employee, who was the finance head, had taken large sums of money from other employees of the company. MVR 50,000, 60,000 and 80,000 had been borrowed from various employees, who have complained that they have not been paid back.
