The Kayah state legislature is investigating chief minister L Phaung Sho for allegedly depositing 400m kyat of public money into his private bank account and leasing public land to private businesses.
The NLD appointee is accused of taking the money made from leasing out excavators and other machinery to prepare a three-acre plot of land for the Kayah State Day festival.
A quarter of Kayah State Hluttaw representatives signed a letter to the speaker calling for a probe, said Theh Reh, who is the Phyithu Hluttaw MP for Hpruso Township and also chair of the investigation team that was formed last week.
The MPs said in the letter that L Phaung Sho had breached article 263a of the Constitution.
The letter followed a complaint by five MPs who said the chief minister repeatedly failed to follow a motion agreed by MPs to keep the three-acres of land public and not lease any of it to companies.
The investigation team believes the minister gave approval for restaurants, sport centers, water factories and even bungalows to lease the land on 50-year contracts.
The chief minister put 400m kyat of money from the lease of 18 government owned machines into his own bank account, Theh Reh said.
The Office of the Auditor General looked into this case and found only a fraction of the money from the machines made it into state coffers, he added.
“Only after this issue was identified did, they act on it. From 2016-2018, they had a new private account. It didn’t go on afterwards. But these machines are wrecked to the point that they can’t be leased anymore,” he told Myanmar Now.
Theh Reh’s team will report its findings to the speaker of Kayah’s regional parliament by August 28. If they find significant breaches, the chief minister is likely to be removed from office. His case could then be elevated to the police or the Anti-Corruption Commission.
L Phaung Sho became chief minister after winning constituency No. 2 in Mese Township for the State Hluttaw in 2015. He has said he plans to run for the same constituency again this year.
