Really? It’s barely been a month since Aung San Suu Kyi’s new government was sworn in and people are already trying to get the ‘gifts’ in.
The President’s Office has rebuked a large local media company that allegedly handed more than $4,000 in cash to a personal assistant to an unnamed VIP during last week’s Thingyan New Year celebrations.
The media company, which was not named in a statement put out by the office yesterday, was told it had violated the government’s directive about receiving gifts.
According to the announcement, the firm asked cabinet members to visit its water festival pandal, or stage, and then presented a gift containing $4,237 in cash to the personal assistant.
Under the President’s Office’s new anti-corruption rules, posted on its website when the new government took over on April 1, the maximum for a single gift is K25,000 (about $25) or K100,000 (about $100) per year.
The firm will face no action because the gift was given during the ‘grace period’, state newspaper the Global New Light of Myanmar reported today.
The cash will be used to construct water facilities in regions that are suffering shortages, the report said.
