A deputy director of a department in Myanmar’s construction ministry has been forced to retire after lawmakers investigated his role in charging an exorbitant fee to polish the doors of the parliament building in Naypyidaw.
In May, lawmakers submitted an investigation to the speaker of the Lower House that found that the Department of Human Settlement and Housing Development under the Ministry of Construction charged the equivalent of US$347,000 – three times the market rate – to polish the parliament building’s teak doors.
While the department is responsible for the maintenance of parliament buildings, parliamentary regulations require jobs worth more than K10 million (US$7,500) to be contracted out to the private sector. In this case, the department circumvented the regulation by splitting up the polishing work into several projects valued at K10 million each.
The department has been instructed to return the difference to parliament.
In addition to the removal of the deputy director, other officials in the department have been demoted, Eleven has reported.
In addition to the loss of funds, the parliamentary investigation also found that the polishing job was substandard, and the varnish is already peeling off.
“We want to take action against bigger players and not pawns. This is an example,” said lawmaker Aung Thaik, a member of the committee that investigated the scandal, told the Irrawaddy.
As of the 2018-19 fiscal year, all government building maintenance budgets will have to be submitted to parliament’s Joint Administrative Committee for approval.
