Total of 431 cases completed, 49 cases forwarded to PG last year: ACC

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has said that the Commission had completed investigations on 431 cases and forwarded 49 cases to the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG) at the end of last year.

Speaking at a press conference held at the ACC office to publish the Commission’s annual report today, ACC Vice President Muavviz Rasheed said that out of a total of 1138 cases submitted, the Commission had decided to investigate 842 cases and a total of 431 investigations were completed at the end of the year. He said that out of 53 cases decided, 49 cases were forwarded to PG for prosecution.

The cases investigated by the Commission last year include 91 cases of conferred undue advantage, 25 cases of negligence to advantage due to the government and 17 cases of seeking compensation to losses to the government.

Muavviz said that among the cases forwarded to the PG, the Commission has asked that 145 charges be raised against 83 persons, and that the total value of the cases sum up to MVR 906 million and that a total of MVR 358 million has been requested to be sought back through prosecution.

Muavviz also said that the biggest challenged faced by the Commission last year was the lack of funds and that the small budget granted this year is also causing difficulties for the Commission. He noted that last year saw the most number of cases forwarded to the PG by the Commission.

Answering questions by the press, ACC President Hassan Luthfee said that there is no improvement in terms of the state of corruption in the country and noted that the number of corruption cases have not decreased. He said that the PG too faces challenges in prosecution, but said that the Commission is working with office to speed up prosecution of cases.