Junta-drafted law keeps auditor general from investigating military finances

Military’s $2m lease to luxury hotel does not appear in defence budget, but auditor general’s hands tied

Construction proceeds on the Y-Complex project at the corner of Shwedagon Pagoda Road and Pan Tra Street on May 21, 2020. (Sai Zaw/Myanmar Now)

Myanmar’s auditor general is unable to probe a $2m-a-year military real estate deal because a law drafted by the former junta shields the defence ministry from scrutiny, a senior official has said.

The military is leasing a plot of land to a company for a luxury hotel project, Myanmar Now reported last month, but the money does not appear in the defence budget.

Naing Thet Oo, permanent secretary of the auditor general’s office, said at a press conference in Nay Pyi Taw on Monday that her office had no power to audit the deal.

“It’s not in our jurisdiction,” she said, responding to a question from Myanmar Now. “We don’t have the right to do it.”

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The Union Auditor General Law was drafted in 2010 by the State Peace and Development Council. It gives the auditor general the powers to investigate the finances of every other government ministry.

Section 39, at the very end, reads: “the provisions contained in this Law shall not apply to the Ministry of Defence.”

With its overwhelming majority in parliament, the NLD-led government could easily scrap the law.

“There is no good reason, in principle or in practice, for the military to be exempt from any state oversight mechanism,” said Chris Sidoti, a lawyer who worked on a UN fact-finding mission that investigated the military’s business ties last year.

“Why should it be? The military is as much a part of the state structure as any other state agency and should be subject to exactly the same kind of oversight and regulation,” he told Myanmar Now.

“It is not acceptable,” he said.

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Office of the auditor general permanent secretary Naing Thet Oo (Min Min/Myanmar Now)

‘Possible corruption’

The Yangon Technical and Trading Company (YTT) is building a $330m mixed-use development, the Y-Complex Project (YCP), on nine acres that once housed a military museum in Yangon.

YTT is leasing the land directly from the offices of the quartermaster general and the army's commander-in-chief. The lessor on the 2013 contract is colonel Aung Min Thein, a Tatmadaw vice quartermaster general.

According to the lease agreement, rent is to be paid in Myanmar kyat or US dollars directly to an account named “Defence Account.” YTT director Ne Ne Hlwan Moe told Myanmar Now the company is paying $2.18m a year.

Sidoti said it was odd but not unheard of in Myanmar to have military officers lease land in their official capacity this way.

“It raises all sorts of questions about possible corruption,” he said.

Tatmadaw spokesperson major general Tun Tun Nyi said he could not immediately comment.

Zaw Htay, spokesperson for the President’s Office, declined to comment.

Human rights groups told Myanmar Now last month that profits from the lease “will provide material support for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

The UN fact-finding mission that Sidoti served said the military funds its operations with a vast network businesses that dominate major industries like pharmaceuticals, cigarettes and precious gems.

Its report last year urged all companies to sever ties with these businesses and their subsidiaries.

Myanmar last month submitted a report to the International Court of Justice detailing what measures it has taken to protect minority Rohingya from genocide.

The court ordered the report as a preliminary measure after The Gambia accused the military of committing genocide during “clearance operations” in 2017 that forced some 730,000 Rohingya to flee to refugee camps in Bangladesh.

The military and government say the operations were legitimate counterinsurgency operations.

YTT is a subsidiary of Ayeyar Hantha. The lease has an initial 50-year term with two optional 10-year extensions.

The project will include offices, stores, and a 252-room branch of the Japanese five-star Okura hotel. It is being built at the corner of Shwedagon Pagoda Road and Pan Tra Street.

Partners and investors include the Japan-based Fujita and Tokyo Tatemono corporations and the state-controlled Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corporation for Transport & Urban Development.

The Myanmar Investment Commission approved the project in 2013. The project had to reapply when foreign investors signed on and was approved again in 2016.

The site was once home to Jubilee Hall, a historic colonial-era structure and early centre of anti-colonial political activity. The bodies of independence leader Aung San and other leaders assassinated in 1947 lay in state at the hall for several months.

The building was demolished in 1985 to make way for the Defence Services Museum. The museum opened in 1994 and was knocked down in 2017 to make way for the YCP project.

Additional reporting by Danny Fenster

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Junta uses corruption allegations to expand legal case against Aung San Suu Kyi

An ex-convict businessman says that he gave the State Counsellor more than $550,000 in cash when ‘there was no one around.’

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 18, 2021

Maung Weik (first from left) is pictured near State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi at the opening ceremony of a government housing built by his Say Paing Company. (Maung Weik/ Facebook)

The military council announced on March 17 that it would attempt to charge State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained since Myanmar’s February 1 coup, with corruption.

The junta’s move is linked to new allegations against Aung San Suu Kyi by businessman Maung Weik. The owner of the Say Paing construction and development company, Maung Weik was formerly imprisoned on drug charges and is known to have close relationships with members of the military’s inner circle.

Military-run media aired a recorded statement made by Maung Weik alleging that he had given Aung San Suu Kyi more than US$550,000 in cash-filled envelopes on the four occasions he met her between 2018 and 2020.

“There was no one around when I gave her the money,” he said in the video statement.

Under Myanmar’s earlier military regime, Maung Weik maintained ties to several generals, including former intelligence chief Khin Nyunt.

He was sentenced to 15 years in prison on drug charges in 2008, but was released in 2014 while the country was led by the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party.

Upon his release, Maung Weik founded Say Paing–a construction company–and ran various business ventures through his connections to military officials.

Maung Weik’s wife is also the niece of military-appointed Vice President Myint Swe, who was also the former chief minister of Yangon under the former military administration.

The coup council announced on March 11 that the now-ousted National League for Democracy’s (NLD) Yangon Region chief minister Phyo Min Thein had given Aung San Suu Kyi $600,000 and more than 11 kilograms of gold. The announcement provided no reason as to why the money and gold were allegedly given to the State Counsellor by the chief minister.

A top NLD figure told Myanmar Now that the funds in question were donations to build a pagoda.

“They’re trying to fabricate this and ruin [Aung San Suu Kyi’s] reputation, but the public already clearly knows it’s not true. There’s no need to say anything else,” the official said.

The junta has also accused the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation and an affiliated project, the La Yaung Taw Academy, of losing public funds. The foundation was founded by Aung San Suu Kyi and named after her late mother.

According to the military council, the land lease for the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation’s headquarters, located on Yangon’s University Avenue, is not commensurate with the market price for land in the area. It argues that the country had lost more than 1 billion kyat (more than $700,000) in public funds as a result.

The junta declared that from 2013 to 2021, more than $7.9 million in donations from foreign NGOs, INGOs, companies and individual international donors flowed into the foundation’s three foreign currency accounts.

Also under investigation by the junta is the La Yaung Taw Academy in Naypyitaw, which trains young people in environmental conservation and horticulture in association with the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation. The military said the rate at which the land for the project was purchased came at a discount of at least 18 billion kyat (more than $12.7 million), which was subsequently a loss to the state.

It also reportedly included some plans—such as the construction of a museum—that used funds in a way that strayed from the project’s, and the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation’s, original aims.

“The construction of a building with finance from the foundation for the chair of the foundation has deviated from the foundation’s objective,” the March 17 announcement in the military-run newspaper said.

Prior to the corruption allegations, the military council had hit Aung San Suu Kyi with four charges at the Zabuthiri Township court in Naypyitaw.

She has been accused of violating Section 505(b) of the Penal Code for incitement, which carries a sentence of two years in prison; Article 67 of the communications law for possession of unauthorized items; an import-export charge for owning walkie-talkie devices; and a charge under the Natural Disaster Management Law for not following Covid-19 measures during the 2020 election campaign period.

The military council has not allowed Aung San Suu Kyi to meet with her legal team.

“I’ll most likely see her via video conferencing on March 24 for the next hearing,” lawyer Min Min Soe told Myanmar Now.

The military council has only allowed lawyers Yu Ya Chit and Min Min Soe to take on Aung San Suu Kyi’s case, ignoring the requests of more established legal experts, including Khin Maung Zaw and Kyi Win, to be granted power of attorney.

Myanmar Now

Myanmar Now is an independent news service providing free, accurate and unbiased news to the people of Myanmar in Burmese and English.

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Banks remain mostly closed despite pressure from junta

A month and a half after the military seized power, most banks in Myanmar are barely operating

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 18, 2021

People queue in front of a KBZ Bank branch in Yangon on March 17. (Supplied)

Banking in Myanmar has come almost to standstill in the more than six weeks since the February 1 coup, with only basic services still available at a limited number of locations.

In the commercial capital Yangon, only a handful of branches of two of the biggest domestic banks, KBZ and AYA, remain open, according to customers.

As of Wednesday afternoon, every bank in the city’s Yankin, Tamwe, Bahan, Thingangyun and South Okkalapa townships appeared to be closed, Myanmar Now found in an effort to confirm these reports.

However, a customer who had used the AYA Bank branch on Sayarsan road in Yankin said it was still open for withdrawals.

Meanwhile, services in other cities were even more restricted. In Mawlamyine, the capital of Mon state, local sources said there was only one KBZ Bank branch still in operation on Wednesday, while all banks were reportedly closed in Bago.

While some banks continue to fill ATMs with cash, few other services are available, bank employees said.

Unhappy customers

Large crowds have been reported at some of the few branches in Yangon that are still dispensing cash, occasionally resulting in tensions between staff and customers.

“At the KBZ Bank headquarters on Pyay road, they were writing down people’s names and phone numbers as the crowd got bigger. They said they would get back to us,” said Aye Aye Phway, a customer who was seeking to withdraw money.

KBZ Bank came under fire on Tuesday when four of its customers were arrested following a dispute with bank staff.

On Wednesday, the bank released a statement denying that it had called the police, as alleged by some who criticized its handling of the incident. It also said that it would assist the customers who had been detained.

According to the junta-controlled broadcaster MRTV, the customers were arrested for pressuring bank staff to take part in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) against military rule.

Pressure from above

A month after many of their employees joined the CDM, privately-owned banks have come under growing pressure from the junta to reopen for business.

Banks that haven’t reopened have been instructed to turn over all of their customers’ information to the state-owned Myanma Economic Bank or one of two military-owned banks, Innwa Bank or Myawady Bank.

The Central Bank of Myanmar would not be responsible for the consequences if banks failed to abide by this demand, the regime warned.

The regime originally issued this order, through the Central Bank, on March 8, to no avail. Despite repeating it again on Wednesday, the situation remains unchanged.

Currently, private banks are required to allow regular customers to withdraw 500,000 kyat per day from ATMs or 2,000,000 kyat per week if they appear at the bank in person.

Companies are permitted to withdraw 20 million kyat at a time, according to Central Bank instructions issued on March 1.

Myanmar has 27 private banks and 17 branches of foreign-owned banks.

Editor's note: This article has been edited to include KBZ Bank's statement on the arrest of four of its customers on Tuesday and the state-owned broadcaster MRTV's claims about the incident.

Myanmar Now

Myanmar Now is an independent news service providing free, accurate and unbiased news to the people of Myanmar in Burmese and English.

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Election sub-commission members released after more than one month in detention

Some of those released were made to sign a statement confirming military allegations of electoral fraud in their respective townships, an official said.

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 18, 2021

The military regime on Wednesday released all election sub-commission members who were detained following last month’s coup, state and township level election officials said.

The coup regime detained the state, regional and township-level sub-commission members on February 11, ten days after it seized power, and tried to justify the move with unsubstantiated claims of fraud during Myanmar’s 2020 general election.

They members were released on Wednesday morning, confirming rumours on Tuesday that they would be freed.

State and regional commission members were detained at divisional military headquarters, while township level members were detained at guest quarters inside battalion bases.

Some members of township-level sub-commissions were made to sign a statement before their release confirming the military’s findings about voting irregularities in their areas during the November 8 poll, said a chair of a state-level sub-commission who asked not to be named.

But one member of a township sub-commission denied that they had to sign such a statement.

Kyi Myint, chair of the Yangon Region sub-commission, said that the military didn’t ask him to sign anything and there was no interrogation.

“We were summoned and asked to take a rest,” Kyi Myint said.

He added that he didn’t know why the military had allowed them to go home. Nor did he know the situation of members of the union-level commission who were also detained.

Kin Khanh Pawng, chair of the township sub-commission in Kale, Sagaing, was detained in mid-February and was among those released on Wednesday. He said he was called in to help with data and paperwork.

“I had to help them find the data they wanted to see,” he said.

A new union election commission body was formed a day after the military seized state power and arrested civilian leaders on February 1.

The new commission met with 53 political parties on February 26 and officially annulled the results of the 2020 general election.

Another 38 registered parties did not attend that meeting. They include the Shan National League for Democracy, the Democratic Party for a New Society, and the People's Party.