ACC: Banks, State institutions refused to cooperate in MMPRC probe

Banks and State institutions refused to share information with Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) during its investigation into the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) embezzlement case, says ACC.

Members of the ACC were summoned for questioning regarding the commission’s investigative report on the MMPRC case by the Public Finance Committee of the Parliament this Wednesday.

During a presentation on the case to the members of the Public Finance Committee, Vice President of ACC, Muaviz Rasheed said the banks outright refused ACC’s requests for information.

“The commission issued legal warning and notice to several banks. Information was denied despite meetings with heads of several banks,” said Muaviz.

He said that the banks, following discussions with the central bank – Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) – finally agreed to provide the information.

“At a certain point, following meetings and discussions with MMA, after a certain point, we gained cooperation from all the banks,” said Muaviz.

He said that it wasn’t just the banks which refused to cooperate with ACC’s investigators, but several State institutions as well.

“State institutions, when requested for information, sometimes hesitated and attempted to pretend they did not possess the information. The investigators gained information from the 73 institutions I mentioned before with great difficulty,” said Muaviz.

He said that investigators, when met with refusal from institutions, is some situations, had to collect the necessary documents themselves from storage facilities.

“When we approached some of the institutions, they responded by saying they did not possess the documents or did not know where the documents were. Our investigators obtained some of the documents by personally going through every storage facility and every file,” said Muaviz.

He said that the ACC faced more difficulty gaining cooperation from banks and State institutions than individual citizens.