Mawlamyine, 27 October
The military council, which has seized power by force, is misusing public funds without disclosing them transparently to the public.
The military council, which seized power on the grounds of voter fraud in the 2020 general election, is spending it as it pleases when there is no parliament to control the union budget.
During the two and a half years of the coup, the military regime, which handled the three-year period of the fiscal year, no longer published detailed information on the budgets of the regions and states, including the allocation of budgets.
According to the Than Lwin Times’ investigation, the military council began spending in the fiscal year 2023-2024 without revealing the details of budget allocation to ministries.
According to an economic expert, “The military council hides information so that the public can’t point out the country’s deficit and other expenditures, which may lead to more wastage of national funds. In addition, since the majority of public funds are used for defense expenditures, which are not disclosed to the public, the revolutionary forces cannot estimate them.”
Under the NLD administration, the revenue and expenditure of the Union, Regions, and States were released in an annual Citizen Budget, and the ministries clarified the activities to be carried out.
“The military council does not release the national budget so that they can steal it as they like, and because they are not a government elected by the people but a dictator, they will do whatever they want,” said U Aung Kyaw, who served as chairman of the Mon State Hluttaw Public Accounts Committee during the NLD government.
“Furthermore, the military council forcibly collects taxes from the people and uses them for military expenses, so it is like killing the people with public funds, so we don’t need to pay taxes as much as possible,” said the expert.
Under the previous administration, the Hluttaw scrutinized and approved the allocation of public funds, and the Audit Department, including the Hluttaw, carried out inspections to ensure that funds were not wasted in the implementation of regional development.
News-Than Lwin Times
Photo-MOI
