Unprecedented number of cases concerning former management of FENAKA at ACC

The former management of state owned enterprise FENAKA Corporation Ltd, is currently facing an unusually large number of corruption related cases, revealed Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) today.

Speaking at the parliament's State Owned Enterprise (SOE) committee while answering members' questions, ACC's president Adam Shamil said that the Commission has placed a special priority on cases related to FENAKA, given the unprecedented number of cases.

He detailed that six cases involving FENAKA's former management from President Solih's administration were submitted to ACC, including cases where actions were taken to achieve a certain goal in situations where it would have otherwise benefited the company.

"Even though I say six cases, they are in fact very big cases. There are cases which have been grouped together due to the nature of the complaints as well," he said.

ACC's vice president Abdul Salaam said some of the cases against FENAKA include ones about the company deciding to implement projects in house.

The purpose of running in house projects is to hire many staff on a contract basis, but such hiring practices without setting a limit causes a huge expense, he explained.

"[There is a case where] stopping the [development] of a power plant which costs MVR 15 million has cost MVR 38 million because it was done in house with hired employees. The reason why it becomes expensive is employee's wages," Salaam said.

He also said that FENAKA has made significant expenses towards its employees, such as spending double on staff's food where employees were paid for the food but also transfers were made to restaurants twice for the same food.

"This is not an issue that occurs in one case alone, but it has been observed in many cases," Salaam said.