No one wants to take responsibility for MTCC

Ministry of Finance has informed Parliament’s Finance Committee that the Ministry is not responsible for the loss of MVR35 million made by Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC) over the past year.

Finance Ministry stressed that it is not the responsibility of the Ministry to ensure that the company collects its due earnings.

Finance Committee commenced its probe into MTCC after being alerted of the company facing several losses.

Its investigations so far have revealed that the reason for the MVR35 million loss was a housing project in Ga. Atoll. The project had been awarded to another company when Finance Ministry assigned some tasks to MTCC, and MTCC failed to receive the due payments for its services.

Finance Committee has decided to conduct a public inquiry on this case; they have however not finalised who to question or a date to conduct the inquiry.

Finance Committee Chairperson and Dhiggaru MP Ahmed Nazim briefed the Committee on Finance Ministry’s response. He said that the LCs for MTCC were opened through a credit facility by State Bank of India (SBI), and that no agreement was made to hold Finance Ministry responsible for this money.

“So I would like to clarify: when did the Board of Directors make the decision to do this? And who is to be held responsible?” Nazim said.

Nazim also noted that the Philippine company Performance Builders, which was running the project, had not paid MTCC for its services. He added that out of MVR220 million provided by the Saudi fund for the project, what remains is MVR39 million.

“We have to figure out a way to utilise this money to pay MTCC for its services,” Nazim said.

According to Finance Committee, about 63 percent of the housing project has been completed. Some Committee Members speculated whether the project can be completed if the remaining funds are used to pay MTCC for its services.

“We have to find out if most of the equipment for the project have been acquired. If so I think the project can be completed even if we use this money to pay MTCC,” Nolhivaram MP Mohamed Nasheed (Colonel) said.

According to findings, MTCC provided the service of transferring all necessary equipment for the project from S. Hithadhoo harbour to Ga. Atoll.

Nazim also pointed out another issue, and said that changes made to the law in 2010 meant that equipment could only be unloaded at Hithadhoo harbour, which resulted in a loss of MVR9.5 million to the government.

He questioned whether this change, while it was meant to benefit the people, actually resulted in any benefit to the people.

“I will request MTCC to clarify all these remaining issues,” Nazim said.