Mohamed Zaki has resigned as the chairman of Maldives Ports Limited (MPL), days after revealing the discovery of corrupt transactions worth over MVR eight million during the Covid-19 lockdown.

While CEO Shahid Ali had confirmed that Zaki has handed over his resignation, reports indicate that he did so on Sunday.

Zaki had, on November 25 via Twitter, revealed that “fuel theft suspects” at MPL had “robbed more than MVR eight million from the company”. He also apologized to the public, claiming that he was not able to suspend the suspects adding that the MPL board had rejected the move with four out of seven votes against.

The next day, MPL issued a statement announcing the discovery of the corrupt transactions, adding that suspects in the theft have been suspended.

It further said that cases have been lodged at the police, Auditor General’s Office as well as the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

MPL also noted that the company takes corruption “very seriously,” and assured that action will be taken against any employee found to be complicit.

RaajjeMV understands that a total of four employees were suspended over the matter, but that one individual’s suspension was lifted after a further inquiry proved that the individual was not involved in the unlawful act.

According to RaajjeMV’s source, those involved are all junior level operational staff.

Zaki was appointed as MPL’s chairman in February 2019.