Minister of Finance Ibrahim Ameer has called for a system to facilitate the recovery of state assets that were stolen in the past few years. He made the remarks while speaking at the working session held by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on establishing an asset recovery system.
At the working session, Minister Ameer said that the government has prioritised closing the doors that allow state corruption by improving the state’s financial system and strengthening public finance regulations. He said that work is being done to implement further improvements to the regulations.
Furthermore, Minister Ameer said that the government’s efforts to stamp down on corruption are showing results. As such, he highlighted that the Maldives jumped from 124th to 85th place in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) from 2018 to 2021. He, however, said that a system needs to be in place to confiscate assets obtained through criminal activities. He also said that a large number of stolen state funds still need to be recovered, noting that USD124 million of state funds that went missing from 2009 to 2020 are still unaccounted for.
Also at the ceremony, President of ACC Adam Shamil said that a large number of state funds have been lost through corruption and that recovering the stolen amount is indirectly an action taken for national development. He expressed confidence that the workshop will strengthen the asset recovery work. He said ACC aims to establish a robust system to facilitate the recovery of state assets that were stolen through corruption, adding that the work to recover state assets is being hindered by the lack of adequate procedures. He expressed hope that the discussions held during the workshop will provide solutions to these issues.