Former president and presidential candidate for the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Mohamed Nasheed has said that expenditure outside the boundaries of the Public Finance Act is not necessarily corruption.
Speaking at an event in Sosun Magu, Henveyru last night, former president Nasheed said that even though the Auditor General has accused his administration of spending the state budget against the Public Finance Act on certain instances, he does not view such expenditure as criminal offences, or acts of corruption.
“The Maldives Auditor General has pointed out to us that during our three years, according to his predictions, our government had spent MVR 2 billion in contradiction to the Public Finance Act. Auditor General said that we had spent a total of MVR 31 billion during our three years and that out of this, MVR 2 billion had been spent against the Public Finance Act and regulation. What I’d like to say is, doing something outside the boundaries of the Public Finance Act and regulation cannot be considered a criminal offence, or an act of corruption,” Nasheed said.
However, Nasheed said that all State expenditure should be kept inside the boundaries of the laws and regulations. He called upon the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to investigate the Auditor General's claims against his government. If there is any wrongdoing, the responsible parties should be brought to justice, he said.
He said that the ACC has yet to accuse him of corruption during his presidency and that on the contrary, they had recently cleared any corruption allegations against his administration regarding the GMR airport deal, for which the administration had been most accused. He said that it is his sincere wish that any corruption allegations against his administration be investigated and dealt with transparency. He noted that the corruption allegations regarding the leasing of the airport to GMR has now come to a close.
“We were the government lucky enough to have the audit reports of the first independent Auditor General pointed in our direction. We also got the opportunity to conduct an administration under the watch of an independent Anti-Corruption Commission. Our purpose, our request, is for all government money to be spent in a true and accountable manner, that the expenses be transparent,” former president Nasheed said.
Speaking at the campaign event in Henveyru last night, the former president said that he is confident that he will gain 25,000 votes from Henveyru and reiterated his claim that he will win the presidential election through the first round of voting.