MMA irresponsible, seeking bank info challenging: ACC

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC)’s President Adam Shamil has criticized Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) for its alleged failure to implement and enforce monetary policies to regulate the commercial banks.

Shamil claimed it was difficult to seek information from banks, pertaining to the commission’s investigations.

While speaking at the Committee on Independent Institutions at the parliament and highlighting ACC’s ongoing investigation into Fenaka Corporation’s alleged corruption, Shamil said that the commission will be probing into the allegations of illicit enrichment of Fenaka Corporation employees. He added this can be ascertained after evaluating how these employees received their funds or generated their earnings.

“We can only ascertain if these employees had illicitly enriched themselves after analyzing the network of those involved in the alleged corruption, which is possible after analyzing their bank statements and the nature of the transactions made through their bank accounts, and how they have made their earnings,” Shamil explained.

He further stressed these investigations are carried out by financial forensic experts, and added the process will consume significant time as well. Shamil however said, that the process is severely hindered due to non-cooperation of banks.

Shamil alleged MMA, the regulatory body of the banks, was failing to stay up to date with the evolving times which the ACC head claimed was visible from the central bank’s failure to formulate relevant monetary policies and regulations.

“We need to assess if the Maldivian banking system is being managed and facilitated in the best possible approach, especially an evaluation from the MMPRC case to current date,” Shamil said.

He stressed the challenges in accessing data from the banks had been notified to relevant authorities on multiple occasions to no avail.

While ACC had criticized the central bank’s failure to fulfill its responsibilities, the parliament is currently trying to summon Maldives Governor Ali Hashim. Parliament’s efforts to summon the governor first on Monday last week, and again on Tuesday and Wednesday this week had failed.

Hashim’s no-confidence was first proposed by Parliament Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim, who alleged the governor was not fulfilling his responsibilities properly. Nazim also alleged the current economic plight with potential irrecoverable damages, was owed to the lack of property action by the central bank.

Meanwhile, Nazim had lambasted ACC at the SOE Committee meeting on Tuesday where he claimed the commission was not producing results.