The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has once again entered POLCO in connection with corruption allegations related to the Police Housing Project, Blues Housing Project.

Confirming this to 'One', the ACC media official said that a team from the commission is active at POLCO in connection with an ongoing investigation related to POLCO. However, no further details were provided.

The ACC has previously entered and searched the POLCO office, located in Iskandar Koshi.

Numerous acts of corruption by POLCO in the construction of 300 housing units under the Blues Housing Project came to light through a special audit report released by the Auditor General's Office on the 24th of last month.

According to the report, a total of MVR 1.06 billion was spent on the Blues Housing Project, which is MVR 1,851 per square foot (for a total of 573,332 square feet). However, based on information from the Tender Evaluation Board of the Ministry of Finance and Planning and the costs of private construction works, the average cost for such construction work is between MVR 1,300 and MVR 1,500 per square foot.

At these rates, the project should have cost MVR 745.3 million, with a maximum expected cost of MVR 859.9 million. Therefore, the audit report states that an additional MVR 354.7 million was spent on this project.

Comparing the initial contract value of MVR 580 million with the MVR 481 million spent so far, which is nearly double, the report suggests that POLCO lacks the technical capacity to manage such large projects, that contracts were modified to benefit contractors, and that there are suspicious activities indicating fraud and corruption within the project.

The audit report states that the tender process for this project was conducted contrary to the state's financial regulations.

The report also mentions that the contract for constructing 300 housing units was awarded to Noomadi for MVR 500 million on June 30, 2013, without publishing a tender announcement in the government gazette or submitting it to the Tender Evaluation Board for selection. Due to not assessing the contractor's financial and technical capabilities and experience, the contractor had to be dismissed at a certain point, and the work had to be reassigned to another party, increasing the project's cost.

Furthermore, according to the termination agreement signed between the two parties to cancel the agreement with Noomadi, POLCO paid a total of MVR 96,324,296 to Noomadi, while the value of work done by Noomadi was MVR 38,202,432. The amount due to Noomadi was MVR 64.3 million, meaning POLCO overpaid by MVR 20 million, according to the special audit report on the project.