Mon State Chief Auditor Finds “Irregularities” Concerning 9 Govt Departments’ Use of State Funds
By Network Media Group
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
During a parliamentary session, Mon State’s chief auditor, Thein Thein Oo, criticized state departments for not adhering to regulations governing state funds and for the government’s failure to respond to these allegations, despite multiple letters highlighting the concerns sent by the chief auditor herself.
No less than twenty-one letters were mailed to the Mon State government regarding “irregularities” by nine departments accused of ignoring procedures when utilizing state finances.
During the release of her audit for the 2018 – 2019 fiscal year at the 17th session of Mon State Parliament on August 24, the chief auditor said the government has failed to “take action” against the departments.
According to her audit, the departments extracted funds at the end of a financial year to use in the following year’s budget, clearly violating regulations that require funds be returned.
The departments also failed to provide tenders for at least 10 projects, each exceeding 10 million kyat ($7,398), breaking procedural regulation 1/2017 requiring tenders for projects of this size.
The audit also highlighted how the departments wasted public money.
After Thein Thein Oo presented her audit, members of Parliament agreed to investigate its findings during the following days of parliamentary session.
At the time of the press, it was unclear what the outcome of the investigation was or whether the government intended to take action against departments based on the audit disclosures.
