The Auditor General Ibrahim Naeem today responded to charges of corruption put against him by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), claiming the case was an attempt to discredit his office and prevent him from reclaiming the government’s money stored in overseas bank accounts.
The ACC has forwarded two cases concerning Naeem to the Prosecutor General’s Office, alleging that Naeem used an official credit card to purchase personal items and fund a private visit to the island of Thulhadhoo in Baa Atoll.
“A lot of the government’s money was taken through corrupt [means] and saved in the banks of England, Switzerland, Singapore and Malaysia,” Naeem claimed, during a terse press conference.
”There are houses and assets of the government saved in those countries,” he said, ”and there is the government’s money stored in personal accounts.”
The ACC’s cases against him were, he said, made by people “attempting to harm [my] office because we are trying to bring all this money back to the country.”
He pledged he would “bring all the money back within the year.”
Press Secretary for the President’s Office Mohamed Zuhair observed that Naeem was being accused of defrauding the government of a “comparably negligible amount of money compared to the millions he’s exposing. It’s not surprising he has powerful enemies.”
The first allegation of making personal purchases was a mix-up between a personal and a corporate credit card, Zuhair claimed. “He bought a tie and later paid when he realised his mistake.”
The second claim, that Naeem had used government money to chartered a boat to Baa Atoll for person reasons, was met with scorn by the Auditor General.
“It was not a personal trip. Neither the parliament nor the president can decide whether my visits are official or personal,” he said.
Zuhair said he expected the Prosecutor General would now send the case to court where the Auditor General would most likely absolve himself of the charges.
“The fact that parliament is already considering a no-confidence motion probably amounts to legal double-jeopardy,” Zuhair noted.
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The good man gets a beating for doing good. People take a stand. Evil can only happen if good people do nothing to stop it.
Good man, my foot. Naeem is as corrupt as anyone else. It’s in his blood. But he is right there are people’s money saved in million in UK and the rest of the world. So Naeem, if you say what you are return this money to its rightful people, the Maldivians. We are watching.
When Naeem talked about Luthfee, he should be ashamed to do so, because Naeem went abroad on government scholarship and did not come to serve this nation. On the other hand Luthfee was serving for this Nation. The issues hear is very simple. Luthfee is having a Masters degree in Audit and Consultancy from University of Central England and he is one of the most educated and experienced person in Audit Office that will be a challenge to Naeem. So, Naeem want to keep him away from the path to Auditor General.
so what was it that he actually did in baa atoll thulhaadhoo? didn't he give details of his visit to thulhaadhoo?
i admired the guy, and thought he was honest...have to think twice now.
This is ridiculous, as long as the Auditor General is transparent about the expenditure of his office he should be allowed to go after the real criminals!
What does it say that our ACC has not brought one single corrupt official to justice and is instead going after the only person who has been actively looking into the previous administration's accounts. It seems as though Auditor General is doing the ACCs job.
Absolutely ridiculous.
“He bought a tie and later paid when he realised his mistake.” what a stupid argument. if this was done by a employee what would happen to the employee? can any body answer. i hope if every one had the oppertunity to reimburse the government money used for personal use. is this the best practice so called?
My question:
If a budget secretary buys 10 pack of cigarette from office money, he sells it, make a profit and then returned the money he took to the budget. Is this OK? after all he returned the money.
If a group of people in the budget section took around couple of million rufiyaa from the budget, start a business, when they made profit, they return the money...Is this OK?
You bought personal things from the credit card issued to you from the Government, but paid the money back...this is very honest and I call it finacial best practice.
for an absolute idiot this is an open and shut case, for anyone who uses their brains, yes its a mistake specially for an auditor general, but certainly not a big of a blunder to fire him..... it is sooo obvious it pains me to see enough ppl to be mislead :S
Minivan news why are you scared Why did you take away part fo my comment. Have you been bribed?
Minivan News is not obliged to publish comments from anonymous sources that place us in breach of Maldivian defamation law. Unless you are volunteering to pay our legal expenses, please refer to point 6 of our Commenting Guidelines.
These allegations of Auditor General and the members of the previous government need to be impartially investigated and strictly penalized. Maldives has even dropped in the ranking according to the annual reports published by Transparency International. This would serve as a nemesis to gain the confidence of foreign investors and its perilous to our nations future. How disgusting is these politicians are willing to accept bribes and feed these wealth to their children being pretending them as muslims?
it looks like the auther is more worried about cases of previouse administration rather than focusing on actual case AG.
Not surprised, gov. thinks its no problem buying persnal items using cooporate card.