The government needs to have a zero-tolerance policy on corruption, says Hassan Luthufee, the president of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

Speaking at the parliament’s public finance committee meeting on Monday, the ACC chief said that corruption can only be eliminated once people stop protecting those behind them.

Luthufee said that ACC is not the only institution there is to stop corruption and expressed his belief that officials of every branch in government should be involved.

He said that the Maldives banking system makes it difficult to find stolen state funds since most of the time cheques are used for transactions. He also said that the ACC has faced numerous obstacles in obtaining the relevant information because of the banking system despite it having data on almost everyone.

Luthufee said that he has discussed reforming the banking system with its owners but that there have not yet been any solutions.