Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has revealed that some entities and all banks of Maldives had refused to cooperate in the investigation into Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Company (MMPRC), through which millions of state funds were embezzled.
ACC said the banks and authorities had declined to share information to the investigation while seaking at the Public Finance Committee of the parliament after being summoned for questioning over their report on the MMPRC scandal.
Vice President of ACC, Muawwiz Rasheed said the MMPRC scandal is the most challenging investigation the commission has undertaken thus far. The lack of cooperation from government authorities and local banks had been a huge setback to their investigation, confessed Muawwiz. He further said the banks outright refused to share any information on the case, and the attempts made through meetings with senior bank officials had not been fruitful. Some of the banks were served with legal warnings over the matter, added the VP of ACC.
"During our investigation, we noticed that it was institutions such as banks that straight out refused to give us any information, unlike individuals. It took several meetings with MMA for most of the banks to come onboard with the investigation", said Muawwiz.
Muawwiz also noted that some government authorities had been reluctant in sharing information, and had claimed that some of the information the ACC sought were not available. Information was sought from 72 different authorities, although obtaining the information proved to be a challenge, he added.
"Some authorities told us, we do not have those documents, we don't know where it is. At that point, we ourselves combed the storage rooms and files individually and found what we were looking for", said Muawwiz.
Noting some other challenges faced during the investigation, Muawwiz recalled that most of the transactions related to the MMPRC scandal were carried out in hard cash, therefore, it was extremely challenging to trace the funds.
The lack of availability of appropriate resources to analyze the acquired data and other resources needed for the investigation was further setback to the investigation, said Muawwiz. Inadequate legal authority granted to the commission brought about several challenges that were outside of the commission's mandate that had to be duly addressed, added Muawwiz.
