Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has revealed it received over 1,400 complaints regarding state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the past seven years.
Speaking at the Maldives Anti-Corruption Conference, President of ACC Adam Shamil said the SOEs have a huge responsibility in building integrity in the state, as the data and statistics reveal a large number of issues with state-owned companies. He detailed that ACC received 1,465 complaints regarding SOEs within the last seven years and that it had given 234 recommendations after investigating the cases.
Furthermore, Shamil said the lack of a system to determine whether SOEs follow the recommendations had been a huge challenge but that the commission’s monitoring and evaluation department now has a system in place. He also said that the main complaints were regarding the hiring process, how the work is conducted and services rendered, and how the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are conducted. He noted that the complaints were submitted after the SOEs failed to conduct their work in a transparent manner, which leads to corruption.
The Maldives Anti-Corruption Conference is being held from October 30-31 at Bandos Maldives. The theme of the conference is Integrity of State-Owned Enterprises. Discussions at the conference focus on the challenges faced by SOEs due to corruption and how to overcome them, as well as measures to strengthen the management system of government companies. ACC stated the main objective of the conference is to bring together SOEs and various institutions related to such companies to discuss issues in the management structure of SOEs and challenges in implementing laws and regulations related to such companies.
During the conference, attendees will discuss ways to eliminate corruption risks in SOEs through good governance, curb the culture of information secrecy, plan corporate governance in a robust and transparent manner and establish accountability mechanisms.