State-run Maldives Road Development Corporation (MRDC) has been undertaking projects outside of its mandate of overseeing the construction and restoration of roads, revealed the auditor general’s report.
According to MRDC’s performance audit report released by the audit office, corporation ventures outside of its mandate include sand selling, development of futsal fields and waste management.
The report specified that the corporation’s involvement in extraction and selling of construction sand was uncovered at MRDC’s site in the southernmost atoll of Addu. MRDC had also constructed futsal fields in several islands in 2014 and 2015 under an agreement signed with the sports ministry. In addition, MRDC is currently involved in waste management in four of Addu’s linked wards, according to the audit report which specified that all such activities are patently outside of the mandate delegated to MRDC by the state.
The audit report indicates that while MRDC’s largest revenue is via road construction and selling of construction gravel, the corporation is receiving income from projects outside its mandate.
Other issues reported by the audit office include absence of MRDC’s board of directors’ members to board meetings, including over three consecutive absences without reason by some members which is prohibited by MRDC’s charter. Reasons for absences have not been informed, added the report.
Censuring MRDC’s audit committee for incompetency, the audit report further went on to disclose the lack of MRDC’s short-term and long-term plans.
Moreover, the report also shed light on the corporation’s increasing expenses over the past three years, with a 73 percent decrease in MRDC’S total profit in 2014.
Meanwhile, MRDC’s then managing director Ibrahim Nazeem Hussain had been appointed as deputy housing minister last week, following which Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC)’s former managing director Abdul Razzaq Haleem had been appointed to the vacated position.
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