ACC: No better team to investigate corruption

Vice President of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has commented that there was no better team than the current one in the commission to investigate cases involving corruption.

ACC sent 14 cases for prosecution and was sent back 70 cases by Prosecutor General’s Office in 2016.

“Sun” questioned the Vice President of ACC, Muawwiz Rasheed regarding the quality of commission’s investigative teams, and Muawwiz expressed dull confidence in ACC’s investigations, and replied that even some of the corruption cases filed with the police were

investigated by ACC.

“I believe there is no team more capable than ours in investigating cases of corruption in Maldives… Cases of corruption filed with Maldives Police Service are sent by them to ACC for investigation,” said Muawwiz.

He said that three special investigative teams from ACC were currently in the middle of investigating corruption concerns within Fenaka Corporation, Aasandha, and Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC).

When question why only 14 out of 829 investigations completed by ACC were sent for prosecution, Muawwiz said that it wasn’t the job of the commission to prosecute people.

“Investigation means uncovering the truth. Investigation isn’t meting out punishment. Our work is uncovering the truth. So our target isn’t to prosecute.

ACC, which is charged with identifying and investigating corruption by law, spent MVR 33 million in 2016.

The commission currently has more than 2,000 cases in pending.