Watchdog aims to clear corruption case backlog

The Anti-Corruption Commission is aiming to reduce its backlog of cases to below 500 by the end of the year, the watchdog’s chief said Monday night.

Speaking at a function held to mark National Anti-Corruption Day, ACC president Hassan Luthfy urged staff to expedite probes and help reach the clearance target.

In his remarks as the chief guest, Deputy Education Minister Dr Abdulla Nazeer stressed the importance of pursuing higher education in anti-corruption studies.

The commission’s 2017 statistics were officially released at the function.

In 2017, the ACC sent fewer than one percent of cases for prosecution. In its annual report, the commission blamed the Prosecutor General’s office and other state institutions, saying there was a lack of coordination and cooperation.

But the PG office hit back saying its lawyers attended to all the cases forwarded by the ACC last year, adding that some cases were rejected due to procedural reasons.

Last October the NGO, Transparency Maldives, said only one corruption-related case reached conviction between 2010 and 2014, despite 175 cases being submitted for prosecution by the ACC.