Yangon govt. making sweetheart deals, says auditor general

Regional government ignored previous report, continues giving breaks to privileged companies on rent and unfair concessions, officials say

Phyo Thiha Cho

Published on Jan 14, 2020

Yangon region auditor general Khin Than Hla at the Yangon region parliament on 8 January 2020. (Photo- Yangon Hluttaw Facebook)

The Yangon region auditor general in a parliamentary session last Wednesday accused the regional government of making sweetheart deals with “privileged” government contractors.

Khin Than Hla made the accusation while reading her office’s 2017-18 fiscal year report on the regional government in the Yangon parliament.

The historic Secretariat building, where general Aung San and several ministers were assassinated shortly before independence, was leased to the Anawmar Company for 50 years, from 2015 until 2069, by the previous government under a build, operate and transfer model, but the company has consistently failed to pay on time, the auditor general said.

The contract also includes a late fee of 10 percent, which the Yangon government has never collected, Khin Than Hla said.

Additionally, the contract delayed the terms of payment from Anawmar until the building’s planned commercial businesses were open to the public, a further privilege the regional government unfairly awarded the company, which took possession of the building before it was commercially viable, she said.

The auditor general also spoke about a 2015 contract the Yangon regional government signed with Myanmar Shwe Ying International Co., Ltd to implement a citywide traffic light and control system for 18.9bn kyats.

According to the contract, Myanmar Shwe Ying is supposed to pay the Yangon government 100,000 kyats for every day the project exceeds its deadline. While the company paid over 28m for running 286 days past its deadline in 2016 and 2017, the project is still incomplete and the company has not paid fines for the last two years at lease, she said.

Khin Than Hla also called a 2017 amendment to that contract barring the government from hiring other towing companies for three years a sweetheart concession.

Kyaw Zay Ya, secretary of the Yangon region parliament’s Finance, Planning and Economic Committee, said the Yangon City Development Committee should have heeded the auditor general’s first warning in 2017.

"That report had already pointed out the city development committee wasn’t collecting all its rental fees in the 2016-17 financial year, yet collection was even lower the next year," he said.

The committee will discuss the report in detail in Yangon parliamentary meetings starting this week, he said.

The Yangon Public Accounts Committee will also discuss the report in parliament at a meeting scheduled for January 13.

Phyo Thiha Cho

Phyo Thiha Cho is Senior Reporter with Myanmar Now.

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KIA attacks police bases in Hpakant

The offensives come in the wake of deadly crackdowns against anti-coup protesters in Myitkyina

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 18, 2021

A KIA soldier watches from an outpost in Kachin state in this undated file photo (Kachinwave)

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) launched attacks against police bases in the jade mining region of Hpakant on Thursday morning, a local resident told Myanmar Now.

The attacks targeted police battalions where soldiers were stationed near Nam Maw village in the Seik Muu village tract.

“There are Myanmar police battalions around Nam Maw,” a resident said. At least three bases were attacked, he added.

A 41-year-old civilian in Seik Muu village injured his left hand during the clash, the Kachin-based Myitkyina News Journal reported.

The KIA has launched several offensives against the coup regime’s forces recently. Fighting has also been reported in Mogaung and Injangyang this month.

Some 200 people fled the Injangyang villages of Gway Htaung and Tan Baung Yan on Monday after the KIA launched an offensive against the military there.

The offenses began in the wake of deadly crackdowns against anti-coup protesters in Myitkyina. The KIA has warned the junta not to harm anti-coup protesters.

Myanmar Now

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Four shot dead, five injured during junta attack on protesters in Kalay on Wednesday

The coup regime’s forces took the injured people away and locals do not know their whereabouts

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 18, 2021

Kalay residents move the body of a man who was shot dead on Wednesday (Supplied)

Four young men were killed and five people were injured in the town of Kalay in Sagaing region on Wednesday as protesters continued their fight to topple the regime despite daily massacres across the country aimed at terrorizing them into submission.

The Tahan Protest Group gathered in the town at around 10am and police and soldiers began shooting. One young man was shot dead on the spot as he tried to help people who were trapped amid gunfire, residents told Myanmar Now.

The regime’s forces also shot at and chased fleeing protesters along roads and through narrow alleys, a resident said.

“The crowd of protesters dispersed but one person was shot dead while trying to rescue those trapped in the protest site,” the resident added.

As the crowd dispersed, a man riding a motorcycle was shot outside a branch of KBZ Bank. “He also died,” the resident said.

Despite the murders, protesters gathered again in the afternoon around 4pm. Police and soldiers started shooting again and killed two people.

“They were shot dead while trying to set up barricades at the protest site. They were shot while trying to obstruct the army’s way as the army troops chased and shot the trapped protestors,” the resident said.

The two who were killed in the morning were identified as Salai Kyong Lian Kye O, who was 25, and Kyin Khant Man, who was 27 and had three children. The identities of the other two have not yet been confirmed.

Five people were also injured and then taken away. Locals said they did not know where they had been taken.

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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.