Suspicious money transfers from the Road Development Corporation (RDC) to private accounts under investigation by the police involved petty cash sent to work sites, RDC Managing Director Moosa Ali Manik (Mookey) has said.
Mookey told Adhadhu's 'Etherefuh' program that the company's employees were now working on 30 sites and that MVR 10,000 was sent to each site every month. The petty cash is deposited to the accounts of employees at the work site, he added. Large sums flagged recently were deposited over the past four years, he said.
"We have about 30 sites in the country now. There are seven departments in Male'. MVR10,000 is handed over as petty cash to the employee in charge of each site. That's not a large amount," Mookey said.
The total amount deposited over four years would be a large sum but there was no wrongdoing as RDC has maintained records, he said.
"Using cash to manage the place is not right," he said, defending depositing money into employee bank accounts.
He referred to a report by the Privatization and Corporatization Board (PCB) as proof that there was no problem with the RDC's finances. The report was "very positive," he said. RDC is the only company that has been following procurement rules as recently revised by the PCB, he added.
Adhadhu asked about opening new accounts designated for depositing petty cash for work sites.
"How can we manage that? These are temporary sites. How can we open an account for each place and each island?" Mookey said in response to the question.
Mookey said the petty cash disbursement was arranged after considering practices in other state companies. It was the most convenient way but there were aspects that could be improved, he said.
