Speaking on the matter of several correctional officers being found to have been facilitating the smuggling of contraband into prisons, Minister Ali Ihusan said failure to flag the millions deposited into their accounts would be investigated.
Following the discovery of millions being deposited into the bank accounts of Correctional Service Officers who allegedly helped to smuggle contraband into prisons, failure to flag these transactions will be investigated, said Minister of Homeland Security and Technology Ali Ihusan on Thursday night.
Two days ago, authorities launched an investigation into a network of corrupt officers who are involved in smuggling phones and drugs into Maafushi Prison. In a press conference held last night to provide information of the matter, a total of 18 officers have been identified to be a part of the smuggling network, with over MVR 73.6 million deposited into their accounts.
Following this revelation, a member of the press questioned why this was not flagged when it has been common practice for banks to call customers and verify deposits if they are even slightly on the larger side. They also asked why no action has been taken until now when other agencies have had similar suspicions concerning officers and prisoners for a long time.
In response, Minister Ihusan said that the deposits were made over time in small amounts ranging from MVR 5,000, MVR 10,000 and MVR 15,000.
"It may be possible that [the small deposits] were not flagged by the bank threshold. But it is an issue we will investigate," he said.
"[We will] share with those parties and institutions and see from which area the information was failed to be shared. We will look into it and take appropriate action against it," he said.
The minister admitted that he believes that institutions like Maldives Correctional Services are places which have many such serious allegations against them by the general public.
He added that previous investigations not following suit with current investigations may be the reason why authorities did not identify the issue previously.
Since the current administration assumed office, Police have been instructed to expedite financial investigations, Minister Ihusan also said.
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