Charges have been filed for prosecution at the Prosecutor General's Office (PG Office) against five individuals in connection with a project by the Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC), a state-owned company, to build flats to provide housing for its employees, which resulted in a loss of MVR 39 million.

Regarding the case, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) said that in connection with the project to build two towers to provide housing for MTCC employees, the company's executives worked to provide undue benefits to the company awarded the contract.

As such, charges have been forwarded for prosecution against former MTCC CEO Hassan Shah, Shifaau Ali who was the then General Manager and a member of the Tender Evaluation Committee, Hussain Zuhury, Mohamed Nazim, and Ismail Adhuham who were members of the Tender Evaluation Committee at the time.

The anti-corruption watchdog revealed that in connection with the announcement to find a party to build two 15-storey towers in the second phase of Hulhumalé as part of the government's housing policy to provide housing for MTCC employees, points were given to a foreign company contrary to the evaluation criteria from among the parties that submitted bids.

They also revealed that after awarding the project to the company, even though the company acted in a way that required termination of the agreement, instead of terminating the agreement, advance payments and progressive payments were released to the company.

In addition to this, ACC noted that efforts were made to assign certain works that were to be done under the agreement as separate works, and while the contracted company did not carry out the work as per the agreement, that agreement was not terminated. ACC also stated that these actions have caused significant financial losses to MTCC.

In addition to the MVR 39 million in financial losses incurred by MTCC in the case, ACC has instructed MTCC to calculate and recover any additional financial losses.

The charges submitted for prosecution in the case include the offense of using official influence improperly to obtain and provide benefits, as well as the offense of acting contrary to how the state could benefit in a matter.

An additional charge of attempting to commit a crime has also been forwarded to the PG's office for prosecution, against Shifaau Ali.

MTCC awarded the project to RE Engineering Works Private Limited of Singapore. Although it was awarded in 2017 to be completed within two years, the work on these towers has not been completed to date.