Investigations of 60 new cases pending at ACC over lack of members

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), on Monday, stated that 60 new cases have been filed with the Commission during this one-month period with no members in office.

The cases filed at ACC within the one-month period also includes one pertaining to the upcoming Komandoo parliamentary seat.

Spokesperson of ACC told Sun today that although new cases have been filed at the Commission, there is no means to investigate due to the lack of members.

Whether a case filed at ACC can be investigated or not is supposed to be decided by its members as per the Anti-Corruption Commission Act.

The extended deadline for applications for ACC membership by the President’s Office is set to expire today. Names chosen from the applicants by the President will be sent for approval to the Parliament. Members will only be appointed once they are approved by the Parliament.

It is a pressing concern of the opposition coalition that the ACC is lacking members at a time a parliamentary seat election is set to take place. On this note, the opposition coalition alleges that appointing members to the ACC is being dragged on as cases of influence on the election may be investigated.

Parliament’s Independent Institutions Committee decided in November that they would recommend the dismissal of members found to be underperforming following their review. Following its review – the Committee voted to initiate the process of dismissal of all members of ACC in early December as they uncovered the Commission had over 16,000 pending cases.  

On December 26, the Committee recommended a vote of no-confidence motion on the Parliament floor against the ACC members.

Two of the commission’s members – Ibrahim Shakeel and Ali Ashraf – resigned after the committee began its review.   

The remaining members; the commission’s president Mariyam Shiuna, vice president Fathimath Anoola, and Aishath Abdulla – tendered their resignation a day after the no-confidence motion was taken.