Audit report on Public Service Media (PSM) has revealed that funds from revenue and dollar exchange transactions have gone missing, as well as large sums having been deposited into the personal account of then Finance Director's child.
Audit report on Public Service Media (PSM) has revealed that funds from revenue and dollar exchange transactions have gone missing, as well as large sums having been deposited into the personal account of then Finance Director's child.
As per the report, MVR 4.6 million deposited in the company's account between 2020 and April 2024, MVR 4.3 million received as revenue between 2017 and April 2024, as well as MVR 190,000 in the company's safe have gone missing.
The report states that between 2020 and April 2024, MVR 5.8 million was taken from PSM's bank account to purchase USD 373,988. However, it notes that 80 percent of the expected dollar amount was not received by PSM, with only USD 76,731 seen to have been received. There are no records to indicate the remaining USD 297,257 were received by the company.
It shows that out of the funds taken for dollar purchase, MVR 4.5 million were released in the form of cheques. PSM's former Finance Director Ahmed Haneef had signed in receipt of MVR 968,580 of these funds.
"No action was taken against the staff who went to bank to take funds as the remaining funds were not received, and as it is the former Finance Director of PSM who regularly conducts transactions to purchase dollars by taking money from PSM's bank account, it is believed that the funds used to purchase dollars was handed over to him," the audit report said.
Haneef was suspended from his post as Finance Director at PSM in April this year in relation to this case. In May, he was dismissed from the position. PSM has since submitted the case to Police.
Auditor General's Office said that in an online transaction to purchase dollar, out of MVR 1.3 million needed to buy USD 75,491, MVR 1.2 million had been deposited to the account of a child of Haneef in a number of deposits.
They said that it was Haneef alone who signed on payment vouchers worth MVR 405,122 permitting dollar transactions via online transfers. A transaction of MVR 30,000 without anyone's signature was also found.
The report further shows that the same ten bills from a foreign company were used multiple times to take an amount of MVR 254,152 from PSM's MVR account in the guise of paying them back. Furthermore, MVR 1.1 million claimed to be in payment for bills from four other parties were withdrawn during separate instances, and then again deposited to PSM's bank account.
MVR 231,300 was then withdrawn to buy USD 15,000 said to be in payment for another three bills. However, after this money was withdrawn, the bills were instead paid for with dollars deposited to PSM's dollar account by another party.
Audit Office said that in dollar transactions, there are USD 10,947 deposited to Haneef's personal dollar account, USD 80,60 deposited via ATMs, and USD 36,071 deposited to PSM account from the account of a child of Haneef's.
The report shows that MVR 4.3 million in cash received by the company between 2017 and April 2024 has not been deposited to the company's account. Out of this, documents show that Haneef had signed accepting MVR 4.1 million of these funds.
The Auditor General's Office has instructed that the case be lodged at the Anti Corruption Commission.
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