Housing Development Corporation (HDC) had misappropriated funds ahead of the presidential election, says Auditor General Hassan Ziyath.

Speaking at a public finance committee meeting on Tuesday, the Auditor General said that HDC had suddenly taken up new projects ahead of the elections.

Ziyath said that HDC had used its own cashflow to finance the new highway connecting to the Sinamale’ bridge and the social housing project ‘Hiyaa’ before it received financial backing from the banks.

Ziyath said that HDC’s policy of selling land was not according to its master plan and that while the company claimed that it began selling land to solve cashflow issues, it did not fix anything.

He detailed that HDC obtained a USD 300 million loan to develop 7,000 housing units and began the loan repayment process before selling the units and questioned why the company’s management did not see how it would create financial difficulties.

Noting that HDC used to be the most profitable state enterprise, Ziyath expressed concern that the company heads have failed to reverse its current downturn.