ACC and Parliament to jointly investigate POLCO Corruption

Maldives’ parliament and the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday agreed to collaborate and share information regarding the corruption allegations surfaced against POLCO following an audit report.

Local media outlet Mihaaru reported that the agreement specifically concerns mutual information and document exchange related to the corrupt practices discovered in the development of police housing units in Hulhumale’s Phase 1 dubbed ‘Blues Housing’.

Last Tuesday, the parliament requested police to provide details on all vehicles imported between 2014 and 2017 for the Blues Housing project, before next Tuesday.

These include a crane and two vans of one model each imported in 2014, two motorcycles imported the following year and details of a car imported in 2016. Another motorcycle imported in 2017, three tower cranes and 14 crane lorries were also included in the list.

This comes following last year's audit report by the Auditor General's Office, which revealed several discrepancies in the development of Blues Housing. According to the report, the project agreement was changed three times, with the cost of development hiked up by MVR 122 million. The completion timeline was also extended to 54 months.

The project was originally awarded to Noomadi for MVR 580 million to be completed within two years. However, MVR1.06 billion was spent by the end of the project according to the audit report. This is a rate of MVR 1,851 per square foot - double the original cost.