Aden: Financial corruption of about 592 million riyals revealed in the Maintenance and Roads Fund

A document revealed financial corruption estimated at more than half a billion Yemeni riyals in the Road Maintenance Fund, which is one of the largest revenue funds in the city of Aden, the temporary capital in southern Yemen.

According to the document - viewed by "Yemeni Youth Net" - "the deficit in the Road Maintenance Fund amounted to 592 million Yemeni riyals, during the past two years, amid accusations against the head of the fund of involvement in this amount, as no investigation has been conducted yet."

The Director of Finance of the Road Maintenance Fund in Aden, Saeed Mahdi Al-Hussaini, accused the Chairman of the Fund, Moeen Al-Mas, of covering up the financial deficit in the Fund estimated at 592 million Yemeni riyals, and of collusion and involvement in that.

This came in the document - which is a letter addressed to the Ministry of Finance - where the Director of Finance of the Husseini Fund stated that the Chairman was involved in a financial deficit, which he dismissed as follows: 130 million riyals in 2023 in addition to 462 million riyals in 2024, as the amount is still not recorded and the trust has not been emptied.

A dispute erupted between the Fund Chairman, Moeen Al-Mas, and the Finance Director, Saeed Al-Hussaini, in the past two weeks, after the Fund Chairman accused the Finance Director of looting the Fund’s funds and spending them without his approval, which the Finance Director denied and issued memos accusing Al-Mas of looting the Fund’s funds.

Among the accusations against the fund chairman is that his wife took a car from the fund and did not bring it for inventory at the end of last year. It was also alleged that the fund chairman did not bring the papers for the cars purchased in the fund’s name.

Financial corruption is widespread in the government revenue offices in the interim capital, Aden, while the government and the Presidential Council have failed to control revenues and activate the oversight and accounting body. In early January, the government revealed the investigation into 20 corruption cases.

The reports - published by the official Saba Agency - revealed the corruption of 7 government agencies, with a total of more than 1 billion, 720 million, and 679 thousand US dollars. This number is equivalent to huge numbers in Yemeni riyals, reaching 3 billion, 544 billion Yemeni riyals.