Committee meeting with POLCO senior officials held closed

Parliament's Public Accounts Committee meeting today, to which senior officials of Police welfare corporation POLCO were summoned regarding allegations of corruption, was held closed.

Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim, who also chairs the Public Accounts Committee's sub-committee, stated that the committee has decided to hold this afternoon's meeting closed. He said that the decision was reached based on the fact that the Anti Corruption Commission is also conducting an investigation into the allegations, and two representatives from the commission were present at the meeting as observers.

The sub-committee is reviewing the matter, and looking into possible actions that can be taken. In last week's meeting, it was decided to propose to seize for the State land and property bought with the proceeds of corruption involved in constructing the POLCO flats.

The audit report indicates that the POLCO flat project was conducted in a manner that benefits specific persons, and was conducted at a loss of MVR 355 million.

As per the report, the agreement to construct the flats was changed on three instances, with the cost for work increased by MVR 122 million, and deadline extended to 54 months. The project was initially awarded to Noomadi company for MVR 580 million, to be completed within two years. However, the work was later contracted to a different party, with total project costs exceeding MVR 1 billion.

The audit, conducted on June 23, 2013 on Police's Blues Housing project, shows that as of now, MVR 1.06 billion has been spent on the project. The report says that this figure is double the actual cost of the project.