Government ministries have dismissed the proposal submitted by Myanmar Alliance for Transparency and Accountability (MATA) to use a CSR fund of about US$9 million in the oil and gas sector as the Covid-19 emergency fund to buy about 300,000 sets of PPE and about 600 ventilators, according to a statement issued by MATA. 

The statement was attached by a reply letter sent by the Ministry of Planning, Finance, and Industry. 

The proposal was submitted to the ministry on March 23 and then to the President’s Office. 

During a meeting of the leading committee for ensuring transparency in tapping the natural resources of Myanmar, the proposal presented by MATA was discussed. The meeting was attended by union ministers from the Ministry of Planning, Finance and Industry, the Ministry of Electricity and Energy, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation. 

The reply sent by the Ministry of Planning, Finance, and Industry said that the proposal was a good suggestion. The fund from the Ministry of Electricity and Energy is earmarked for locale people affected by oil and gas exploration and transportation. Coordination must be sought even from lower levels if an emergency fund is to be spent, the letter said. 

The Ministry of Planning, Finance, and Industry also suggested that it is not necessary to use the CSR fund. For Covid-19 preventive, control and treatment measures, the State is spending loans with low-interest rates from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, International Monetary Fund, and Japan International Cooperation Agency and surplus fund to which 10 percent of ministerial budgets for 2019-2020 fiscal year was added. 

MATA said the CSR fund was enough to buy 600 ventilators and 300,000 PPE sets.