Male’, Maldives – Maldives Ports Limited CEO Shahid Ali (Shaad) has claimed today that the recently uncovered MPL fuel theft occurred due to MPL being forced to operate understaffed during lockdown.
Speaking on the matter on local news channel “RajjeTV”, Shahid alleged that along with MPL employees, staff of the government’s fuel company, Fuel Supplies Maldives Pvt Ltd are also involved in the scandal.
Shahid noted that among employees who were questioned on the matter, one has owned up, and that further investigations revealed that the ordeal was carried out utilizing forged official papers.
Shahid explained that an audit report identified multiple forged documents including delivery notes and fuel requisition forms, which had fraudulent serial numbers.
These statements come after the Chairman of Maldives Ports Limited (MPL), Mohamed Zaki resigned from his position days following MPL confirming that corrupt transactions worth over MVR 8 Million took place within the company during the COVID-19 lockdown.
MPL released a statement the next day announcing that employees involved in the corruption have been immediately identified and suspended, pending the outcome of the investigations.
