Corruption report on MMPRC to be released next month

The Anti-Corruption Commission has said on Thursday that it would release the findings of its inquiry into the state-owned Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC).

At an event to release its annual report, ACC chair Hasan Luthufee answered a question about its 2016 inquiry into the biggest corruption scandal in Maldivian history – posed by RaajjeMV – and assured the commission’s commitment to its timely conclusion, adding that it was one of three cases given top priority.

Luthufee further said that he was confident that the report, previously said to be 600 pages, will be released in April.

The ACC began probing the case after allegations that MMPRC’s former Managing Director, Abdulla Ziyath, former Vice President Ahmed Adheeb, and businessman Hameed Ismail had embezzled from resort leases.

President Abdulla Yameen had even accused Adheeb of using the embezzled funds to bribe law enforcement agencies after having his deputy arrested for allegedly conspiring to assassinate him.

The ACC’s probe was launched in October, though it also began inquiring into a second corruption case in September after Al Jazeera’s investigative unit released an exposé into embezzlement and money laundering dealings primarily uncovered by former Auditor General Niyaz Ibrahim, which also comprised of leak phone records and bank statements.

President Abdulla Yameen had insisted that that corruption did not reach higher than the office of the Vice President, while the government has deemed Al Jazeera’s report to be ‘biased, and unsubstantiated’.