Didn’t steal, ready to answer: Moosa Ali Manik

Former Road Development Corporation (RDC) Managing Director Moosa Ali Manik has said that there has been no fraud or theft within the agency, and that if there is such allegations, it should be looked into.

The current management of RDC was summoned to the State Owned Enterprises (SOE) Committee of Parliament recently to clarify the alleged corrupt practices of the last government and steps being taken to ensure that they are not repeated.

During the meeting, the company’s current managing director, Ali Zuhair, said the then RDC management had disbursed MVR 161 million to various parties over a two-year period, without any supporting documentation.

The MDP held a press conference on Sunday saying that the current management of the RDC has made untrue statements in the SOE committee. The meeting was attended by Moosa Ali Manik, who served as the company's MD in the previous government, and Yasir Hassan, the company's Chief Financial Officer.

During the meeting, the two officials denied allegations that they withdrew more than MVR 13 million from the RDC’s account and allegations about the RDC’s financial position and debt figures.

 “If there are such allegations, I call on the government to investigate the case but the current government will not dare to do so,” he said.

The government does not dare to do that because it has to lie and the way the companies were run in the previous government was good, he inserted. Moosa Ali Manik also said that if the cases are looked at, it will be clear to the people that all the companies were run very orderly in the Solih regime.

“While there are such serious allegations, the people of the Maldives have given them the parliament in whole; look at our numbers. When this is the case, why are they not investigating, arresting, prosecuting and doing these things? We are not worried they will look into the matter. We are worried they aren't”, said Moosa Ali Manik, who is also the president of MDP’s Maduvvari constituency.

Moosa Ali Manik said that while they were accused of making RDC suffer huge financial losses during the previous government, this government had not dared to summon them to the meeting held by the SOE Committee of Parliament to clarify the matter. The committee chairman, Baarah Constituency Member Ibrahim Shujau, said the members did not dare to present the former management officials, according to Ali Manik.

He said he himself had sent a letter to the committee requesting them to summon him but had not received a reply to the letter.

"It should be clear to the people if we stole or not. When they know we didn't, they won't dare to disclose. So we are raising the issue. Look, clarify and expose to the people what happened," he said.

During the meeting, he also noted:

While the MDP called for an investigation into any allegations, in March last year, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) announced that it was investigating a case of alleged embezzlement and laundering of large sums of money by RDC employees during the previous government.

According to the ACC: