ACC raids Polco for potential corruption in housing project

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has raided the office of Police Cooperative Society (Polco) on Monday, February 3, 2025.

Maldives Police Service in a message shared with local media said the ACC has been inspecting Polco’s premises in relation to potential corruption tied to the housing flats developed by Polco. The authority however, did not provide any further information beyond this.

Polco was awarded with developing housing flats specifically for police officers in 2013, for which the company reportedly incurred over MVR 1 billion while a recent audit report from the Auditor General’s Office showed the poor management of Polco resulted in a loss of MVR 354.7 million to the state.

Previously, the Commissioner of Police, Ali Shujau affirmed the authority will formally request ACC’s intervention to investigate for potential corruption on the part of Polco.

According to the audit report, Polco spent MVR 1.06 billion as of the audited date, which is MVR 1,851 per square-foot. The report also highlighted that information from the Tender Evaluation Board of the Ministry of Finance revealed that the standard market price for construction is between MVR 1,300 and MVR 1,500 per square-foot.

This indicated that for Polco’s housing flats, an excess between MVR 240.1 million and MVR 354.7 million had been incurred.

The Auditor General’s Office recommended taking action against culpable officials of Polco.

The Polco housing flats, developed across three towers, consisted of 361 flats and 20 penthouses. Despite project commencing in 2013, people were only able to move in to these units last year.