Nazim: Police audit proves President Muizzu’s ‘daring’ nature

The move by the incumbent administration to audit the police service for the first in 16 years proves President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s daring and sincerity, says Ahmed Nazim, deputy speaker of Parliament and prominent politician from the main ruling People’s National Congress (PNC).

In an appearance on Sun’s ‘Editaruge Suvaalu’ program, Nazim said that the establishment of the country’s first political parties came at a time when the Maldivian people harbored a serious lack of trust in the government.

He said that the new constitution – which came into force in 2008 – was drafted amid huge challenges. It was under the new constitution that independent institutions were established.

Nazim said the situation is different, 16 years on.

“The current reality is that the younger generation cannot even comprehend the circumstances during that period in time. But we established these [independent] institutions in accordance with international best practice,” he said.

Nazim said that the Maldivian people were denied the full benefit of the new constitution – something that he blamed on “lack of sincerity of the leaders elected by the people.”

He believes that with President Muizzu, the Maldivian people finally have a sincere leader.

“I believe the day has now come. We also have a Parliament that can amend the constitution,” said Nazim, referring to PNC’s supermajority in the legislative assembly.

Nazim said that past leaders failed to audit uniformed bodies such as the police and the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) despite being aware that the institutions engage in financial transactions.

He said that President Muizzu is the first leader to be brave enough to audit uniformed bodies.

Nazim said that according to documents collected by the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, a committee that he sits in, the three companies run under the police – POLCO, POLWEC and POLCAT – and MNDF’s SIFCO have been issued huge loans by the state.

“Over MVR 1 billion was spent on building the police flats, but these places weren’t audited. It has been 16 years since we appointed an auditor general. But none of the auditor generals dared to put their foot in one of these places,” he said.

But he noted that the incumbent administration had dared to do so.

“Therefore, this ‘daring’ is something very important. Daring is a crucial component of sincerity. Because it is so important to dare to conduct audits with disregard for the potential outcome,” he said.

Nazim said that making daring decisions such as conducting such audits is how the Maldivian people can benefit from the constitution.

The Auditor General’s Office released its audit of the 2013 police housing project ‘Blues Housing Project’ run by POLCO on Thursday.

The audit uncovered losses amounting to MVR 354.7 million due to POLCO’s “corruption and incompetence.”

The audit uncovered that the project – which should have cost MVR 745.3 million or MVR 859.9 million at the most based on average market price – cost over MVR 1 billion.

The audit found the project resulted in losses amounting to MVR 354.7 million due to “corruption and incompetence.”