Dhuvaafaru council corruption: PGO reprimands members

The Prosecutor General’s Office has decided to make advisory agreements as a reprimand instead of pressing charges in the case of R.Dhuvaafaru Council corruption. 

The 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.

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), following their probe of the case, requested charges against eight individuals including some of the councilors and staff members back in March.

Speaking about the most recent developments of the case, the media official for PGO, Public Prosecutor Ahmed Shafeeu on Thursday stated that the office has made advisory agreements with the councilors under article 97 of the Penal Code. 

The eight individuals involved in the case are;

• 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

While they have confessed during investigations, PGO said that a number of things were taken into consideration when making the agreement. This includes criminal records of the accused, how the incident occurred, the extent those accused participated, responsibilities undertaken by them, duration they served to the state, the state having received compensation and the possible outcome if criminal charges are pressed. 

Furthermore, PGO said that the agreement clearly dictated that if within the time period in the agreement, if any further crimes are committed or any of the clauses are violated, the agreement will be terminated and criminal charges will be brought against them.

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 in March after making the amendments instructed by the office during the duty prosecution process.