Payments were made to a company that did not even exist, for SAARC Summit preparations: ACC

The Anti-Corruption Company (ACC) has said that money was paid from the Southern Utilities Limited (SUL) to several private companies, including one company that did not even exist, as part of the preparations for the SAARC Summit held in Addu City by former President Mohamed Nasheed’s government.

President of ACC Hassan Luthfy told Sun Online today that the commission will investigate the claims made in the audit report, which has revealed that millions of Rufiyaa was used against the law in relation to the SAARC Summit.

He said that some issues noted by the auditor general had also been filed to ACC, which are also under investigation.

Luthfy said that the commission had observed that there are serious problems associated with the manner in which funds was provided by SUL to private companies, and that details of these issues will be revealed when the audit report of the SUL is released.

“We have obtained a copy of the audit report after it was released by the auditor general. We haven’t officially received the report yet. Cases related to this have been officially filed to us by some groups. This includes payments made to private companies for work that was done by police and MNDF officers, including payments made to a company that did not even exist,” he said.

Sixty percent of the work related to the compound of the Convention Centre in Addu City was carried out by police and MNDF officers, but the auditor general has noted that MVR 5.1 million was provided from the budget, in violation of the law, to SUL for carrying out this work.

SUL had entered an agreement with AIR Construction and SR Trading to conduct this work on subcontract basis, and paid MVR 2.1 million to these companies, but there are no documents to indicate that these companies in fact carried out this work, stated the audit report.

Luthfy said that the issues noted by the auditor general are serious problems, and that the commission would take action against all the cases they investigate in relation to this matter.