ACC has concluded its investigation of a complaint alleging that Public Service Media (PSM) has acted in contradiction to the law, when paying the rent for 2 stories of an incomplete building leased by the company to establish “Maldives Media Institute”
Upon investigation, it was found that PSM had made an announcement to acquire a building for the purpose of establishing “Maldives Media Institute” which falls under their responsibility as per the Law number 9/2015 (Public Service Media’s Act). Following the announcement, PSM had received 3 bids which were evaluated accurately by the company’s bid committee, based on the information submitted by the bidders and the information sheet issued by the company with regards to its announcement. However, the winning bidder’s architectural drawings submitted along with his/her bid does not indicate how the floor plan needs to be designed. Therefore, PSM’s bid committee concluded that the agreement to lease the building will only be signed, once the department that requested to lease the forenamed building and the representatives of Media Institute supervises the building, ensures that it fits the requirements of PSM and informs the procurement department regarding it. The Company’s documents reveal that following this conclusion, two senior officials of PSM had visited to inspect the building.
PSM had agreed to lease the selected building’s first and second story on the rate of MVR 37,000/- for each story per month. However, the agreement was signed without clarifying whether Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure had issued the required permission to utilize the building in discussion. Furthermore, Article 10 of the agreement states that the duration of the lease would start from 01st December 2015, whereas till that date, the building had not been completed to the level that was agreed upon by PSM. Despite knowing this, the Company had not taken any administrative action with regard to the issue.
From the investigation it was found that, director of procurement department of PSM had signed a memo declaring that the building had been completed up to the level specified in Article 16 of the agreement. The memo sent to the administrative department upon which, a payment voucher was prepared and the rent of MVR 111,000/- was granted to the property-owner for the month of December 2015 and January 2016. Subsequently, PSM had also paid MVR 74,000/- as rent for the period of February 2016 to June 2016. While Article 16 of the agreement states that the building must be assigned to PSM only after it gets completed to a specified level, ACC’s investigation found that the building had not been progressed to the level stated in the agreement when the company had paid rent for the building from December 2015 to June 2016.
Therefore, investigation was concluded that the director of procurement department of PSM had misused his position to provide an undue advantage to a third party by signing a memo which falsely states that the building in discussion had been completed to the agreed level. Thus, the case has been forwarded to the Prosecutor General’s Office to be prosecuted under Article 513 b (1) and Article 513 b (2) of law number: 9/2014 (Maldives penal code) for the offence of misusing an official position and providing an undue advantage to oneself or a third party.
Also, as the rent of MVR 481,000/- paid by PSM from December 2015 to June 2016 is a loss made to the Company, the case has been forwarded to the Prosecutor General’s Office to recompense the government loss.