Village-tract admin in Minbya Twsp accused of misusing pandemic relief funds

18 Dec 2020

Kyaw Thu Htay | DMG
18 December 2020, Sittwe

Residents of Mingulan village-tract in Minbya Township, Arakan State, have complained to the Union cabinet about the alleged misuse of government financial relief for families with irregular incomes amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Villagers said they sent letters to the President’s Office, State Counsellor’s Office and Anti-Corruption Commission on December 16, demanding that legal action be taken against the village-tract administrator and clerk.

“The government allocated more than K74 million ($55,000), but villagers were provided just over K4 million. The village-tract administrator and clerk have misused the remaining relief fund of about K70 million. So, we submitted complaint letters,” Salai Pai Sun, a resident of Kyay Ma village, told DMG.

The letters allege that the village-tract administrator and his clerk took out a total of K74.7 million from the township General Administration Department (GAD), which the government allocated for 747 households in the village-tract. The money was to be distributed over four tranches of financial relief: K20,000 per household in each of the first three tranches and K40,000 per household for the fourth.

But the village-tract administrator provided just K5,000 per household in nine villages for the first tranche and K10,000 a household at two villages for the second tranche, the complaint states.  

“When we went to the township GAD, we knew that they took out the financial relief and they also forged signatures of villagers confirming receipt of the money,” said Salai Tun Hla Kyaw, a resident of Zediyan village.

DMG phoned the village-tract administrator numerous times seeking comment on the villagers’ accusations, but he could not be reached. 

There are about 30 acres of farmland in the Mingulan village-tract, and local residents also earn their living selling wood and bamboo from its forested areas.

The village-tract comprises more than 20 villages that are home to about 6,550 people. The area is remote and under-developed, with its only transport link to Minbya town being a waterway.

The government’s COVID-19 relief programme has been dogged by allegations of fund misappropriation in several townships, including Taungup and Ramree in Arakan State.