Road Development Corporation (RDC) has decided to sue Dhiyares News for allegedly spreading false information about the company.
In a message to the media today, RDC said the corporation's reputation is being tarnished by the untrue stories spread by the news website.
RDC said its board has decided to take the matter to the Civil Court and the Maldives Media Council (MMC).
RDC earlier denied corruption allegations reported in the media accusing its Managing Director Moosa Ali Manik 'Mookey' and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Yasir Hassan of taking more than MVR 13 million from the company's Bank of Maldives (BML) account for personal use.
RDC said neither the police nor the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) has informed the company about an investigation related to the company's finances.
But police spokesman Chief Superintendent Yoonus Sobah told Adhadhu that investigations found company money deposited into a manager's account and that money was transferred to several different accounts.
He said efforts were underway to determine the reason behind the deposit and transfer of RDC money.
In an interview with Adhadhu, Mookey said the suspicious money transfers involved petty cash sent to work sites.
He said the company's employees were now working on 30 sites and that MVR 10,000 was sent to each site every month.
"We have about 30 sites in the country now. There are seven departments in Male'. MVR 10,000 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, adding that RDC is the only company that has been following procurement rules as recently revised by the PCB.
