The Waste Management Corporation (WAMCO) spent millions without bidding processes in 2016 and 2017 to buy vehicles for garbage disposal services, according to a special audit report of the company.
The special audit related to WAMCO's procurement prepared by the Auditor General's Office and published yesterday flagged several cases of suspected corruption from 2016 to 2017.
WAMCO bought vehicles worth MVR 43.9 million without competitive bidding processes, including a decision to buy trucks of a specific brand in order to contract a chosen supplier as well as suspected corrupt practices in the purchase of 10 dumper trucks to carry garbage in 2016.
Despite WAMCO informing auditors that some of the trucks had only been available from one party, the report noted that vehicles should be purchased based on specifications instead of a specific brand, which would have allowed awarding the contract to the bidder that proposed the best price.
The company contracted by WAMCO to procure trucks of a certain brand supplied vehicles that had been modified to fraudulently hide the brand and manufacturing country, the report stated.
In the case of the 10 dumper trucks, WAMCO agreed on a price of MVR 6.8 million but paid an extra MVR 407,642 to the supplier. WAMCO claimed the additional amount had been paid as the goods and services tax (GST) but the supplier did not pay it to the Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA), the report said.
Among other cases flagged in the audit report was the purchase of three barges by WAMCO in 2016 for MVR 35.32 million. The agreement stated that the vessels should be fitted with Yamaha engines but they were delivered with engines of the Cummins brand without any changes to the agreement, the report noted.
The supplier proposed a discount of USD 10,000 for changing the engine brand but the agreement had not been amended and the payment was made without deducting the discount, the audit found.
Since the Cummins brand engine was cheaper than the Yamaha brand, the audit office instructed WAMCO to seek an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) into the suspected attempt to unduly benefit the contractor by agreeing to install Cummins brand engines without changing the price of the contract.
The audit also flagged cases involving the monthly renewal of leases for two barges for 20 months without reviewing the rental price and the disbursement of funds to various parties in violation of a board decision against providing sponsorship funds without sound procedures.
On four occasions, WAMCO provided MVR 850,000 as sponsorship funds to three associations after the managing director signed and sent a memo to the finance section.
Additionally, WAMCO spent MVR 1.6 million through purchase orders on work contracted to five parties without any agreements in 2016. But the purchase order forms did not include important provisions such as the quality of work or action for failure to complete the work on time, the audit report noted.
