Income support obtained through fraud repaid

A Maldivian has repaid income support allowance obtained fraudulently when this case submitted to the court.

The allowance was collected from the income support allowance introduced to aid people who had suffered during the Covid-19 crisis.

On Thursday, the civil court ruled that the accused had submitted a form containing false information to the Ministry of Economic Affairs seeking income support, and that they were paid MVR 5,000.

The prosecution filed this case in court after no action despite repeated requests to repay the amount. He has since pled guilty to the charges, and agreed to pay the amount before September 1, 2022. He had repaid this amount within this duration.

Therefore, the ministry withdrew the case against the accused.

The civil court concluded the case since the charges were withdrawn.

The audit reports conducted on the income support allowance given by the government during Covid have revealed that MVR 5 million was fraudulently withdrawn from the state by various individuals.

Of this, the government has recovered MVR 213,884 by 2021.

At the end of 2020, when Covid was spreading rapidly, the government released MVR 421 million as income support to 22,946 beneficiaries.