Action will be taken if payments are made for tugboat: ACC

Four senior officials of Maldives Ports Limited (MPL) have been informed by Anti-Corruption Commission, that legal action will be taken against them if any payments are made to Centre Enterprises Private Limited against ACC’s earlier notifications.

ACC had earlier repeatedly notified MPL that no payments should be made to Centre Enterprises Private Limited, as the issue of MPL’s efforts to purchase a tugboat via Centre Enterprises Private Limited is currently under investigation by ACC.

Letters sent by ACC today were addressed to MPL’s Chief Executive Officer Mahdhy Imad, General Manager Mohamed Hashim, and Deputy Chief Executive Officers Hussain Naeem, Ahmed Faiz.

Sun Online has received copies of all four letters. The contents of all four letters are the same except for the names of the MPL employees.

Chairman of MPL Abdul Matheen said in relation to these letters that MPL is not involved in any corrupt practices, as implied by ACC.

“Nothing like this has taken place since we took over. The project mentioned by ACC took place in 2008. The project is currently being carried out based on past records and according to ACC’s advice. I assure that MPL is not involved in any corrupt practices. ACC is welcome to investigate any issue, but I am not sure why they are investigating this particular case, when we have been following their advice in carrying out this project,” he said.

A member of the Board of Directors of MPL said that ACC sent these letters without proper investigation, and also said that he believes that there could be ‘more to this issue than meets the eye’.

Sun Online has been informed that work on the tugboat in question is underway at Thilafushi, with its hull already completed. About MVR12 million has to be spent on the tugboat.

It has not yet been possible to contact ACC in relation to this matter.