Parliamentarians have carried out a debate full of concerns and criticism aimed at the Bank of Maldives after an emergency motion was submitted to the parliament today over the disappearance of monies from the Bank's accounts.
The Emergency Motion was submitted to the parliament by the MP Nolhivaram Constituency Mohamed Nasheed Abdullah who said that the monies were disappearing from BML accounts as private information of citizens was being compromised and that even though the cases have been brought to the attention of the Bank and the Police, not much has been done to recover the lost funds.
He added that the public's trust in the Bank was depleting day by day.
Speaking during the debate of the motion, MP for Hulhudhoo Constituency Ilyas Labeeb said the issue of 'losing' funds from BML accounts has long been prolonged and continues to remain unresolved.
He said that measures taken by the Police and Maldives Monetary Authority MMA must be strengthened and that BML itself must take measures to prevent such transactions.
MP Labeeb added that the parliament committee on State Owned Enterprises was investigating this matter and that it would submit a report on its findings to the parliament floor.
Meanwhile, MP for Maafannnu Medhu Constituency Ibrahim Rasheed said that the parliament would summon the relevant authorities along with the telecommunication companies to understand why this issue remains unresolved.
He accused that the issue was related to BML's internal matters. MP Rasheed said that while 8 banks operating in the Maldives, it is concerning that only BML customers are reporting such transactions and that it leads one to believe that this matter is related to the Bank's internal operations.
The MP for Vilifushi Hassan Afeef also shared his view and believed that these transactions came within BML. He said that he does not believe that such transactions can be faulted on the technology but rather came from the Bank's employees. He accused BML's employees of being involved in the scam themselves. The MP said that the public was trusting the Bank with their hard-earned money and that BML should take responsibility for the unexplainable transactions.
The MP for Naifaru Constituency Ahmed Shiyam highlighted that BML was summoned to a parliamentary committee after a private company made such a report of lost funds. He said that the Bank had noted several security issues from the customers' side including the lack of awareness in differentiating scam links and giving access to their accounts via such links.
MP Shiyam that investigating agencies must be strengthened in order to resolve these issues and that their capacity must be increased.
Many among the public remain skeptical over the Bank's role in these 'lost' transactions and question the role of police in it as well. This month alone more than MVR 200,000 was scammed from a BML account and the scammers
used a QR code issued by the bank. Two people have been arrested for the scam.
