Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) issued a statement on October 20, saying that it would not take action against the complaint filed by Dr. Nyo Nyo Thin, a former regional MP, about the Yangon Region Auditor General’s report as it occurred before the enactment of the law.
In its statement, the Anti-Corruption Commission said on October 10, the commission received Dr. Nyo Nyo Thin’s complaint about the losses of the State described in the region auditor general’s report. The commission should take action against losses, regarding it as the notorious one as it is linked to the provision of Section 3 (a), Para (ii) of the Anti-Corruption Law. On 18 October, the commission’s complaint scrutinizing committee submitted it to the commission’s meeting. It is found that the Yangon Region Auditor General submitted the audit report at the 7th regular session of second Yangon Region parliament, in accordance with the provisions of Section 25 (a) and (d) of the Union Auditor-General Law.
The duty and mandate of the region auditor general is to send its finding report to respective departments, organizations and the regional government after auditing cash account and the property lists of governmental departments and organizations. Respective departments and organizations have to report back the completion of their works to the region auditor general office during the designated period. Then, the auditor general office monitors and scrutinizes the continued operations of works until completion step by step. The facts contained in the complaint have been submitted by the region auditor general at the regional parliament. There remain many steps to be done by the respective governmental departments. The auditor general office will re-scrutinize whether the works done are acceptable or not, the statement says.
In the complaint, the works done in the 2015-2016 FY and 2016-2017 FY are linked to the definition of corruption described in Section 3 (a), Para (ii) of the Anti-Corruption Law. But, the Section 3 (a) (ii), the provision pertaining to the losses and damages of State-owned money, property and ownership was added to the fourth bill amending the Anti-Corruption Law only on June 21, 2018, the statement adds.
The commission decided not to take action against it at the meeting held on October 18, 2018 as the facts described in the complaint lodged by Dr Nyo Nyo Thin have not completed and the matters took place before the fourth amendment to the law on 21 June, 2018, it says.
Dr. Nyo Nyo Thin who is a founder of Yangon Watch said: “I welcome the issuance of statement by the commission in a short period of time. I have disagreement with the commission over the definition of law. It seems that the commission doesn’t want to designate the losses occurred before the amendment to the Anti-Corruption Law 2018 as the corrupt case. Even though the commission doesn’t describe that point clearly, it wants to do like so. The losses of the State came to surface in parliament in the recent day. I assume that it is linked to the amended Anti-Corruption Law as the people have come to know in the recent day that a loss of Ks60 billion was made in the time of the then-government.”
Dr. Nyo Nyo Thin said: “I welcome the fact that there remains works to be done by the government. I will continue monitoring it as described in the para-4 of the statement as the commission will inspect the reaming works and losses. I will monitor how much the State will recoup money from a loss of Ks60 billion. I will do nothing if at least Ks40 billion is recovered.”
Yangon Region Auditor-General’s report on the region government was submitted in the session of the region parliament this month. More than 20 parliamentarians discussed the audit report in the region parliament.
