Dhuvaafaru Council corruption: ACC seeks charges against eight

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), on Thursday, has forwarded R. Dhuvaafaru Council corruption case to the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG Office) seeking charges against eight council officials.

Dhuvaafaru Council corruption case came to light last year, when a special report prepared by the Local Government Authority (LGA) showed over MVR 2 million in suspicious transfers to the personal bank accounts of some of the councilors and staff members of the council from the budget.

A total of 12 people were investigated following the report. Charges are being sought against eight council officials following the completion of the duty prosecution process.

ACC detailed the eight officials as follows;

• Council President Hassan Hakeem
• Council Vice President Izmeel Ahmed
• Former Councilor Ahmed Samhooh
• Councilor Mohamed Shaam
• Councilor Zuhudha Adam
• Councilor Aminath Solah
• Secretary General Mohamed Nasir
• Former Assistant Director Mohamed Ali Fulhu

Charges against all eight officials are being requested under Article 513 (b) of the Penal Code – for abusing official capacity to obtain an unentitled benefit; Article 516 for corruption with respect to state funds and property in addition to Article 517 for disregarding the best interests of the state in circumstances of benefit.

When Dhuvaafaru Council corruption case was submitted to ACC in July last year – a team of the commission visited the island to gather information for the investigations. They completed the investigation and forwarded the case for duty prosecution two months later. The case was resent to the PG Office on Thursday after making the amendments instructed by the office during the duty prosecution process.