Myanmar junta still awarding lucrative contracts to incarcerated general’s family

Myanmar’s military regime has continued to grant construction project tenders to businesses owned by a top general’s family even after dismissing him and convicting him of corruption and high treason, according to investigations by Myanmar Now. Lt-Gen Moe Myint Tun, now 56, was one of the loyalists among the military top brass with whom Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing staffed his new cabinet after leading a coup d’état in February 2021. As a member of the junta, he chaired three committees crucial for managing economic affairs: the Myanmar Investment Commission, Foreign Exchange Supervisory Committee, and Central Committee on Ensuring Smooth Flow of Trade & Goods. Military authorities arrested Moe Myint Tun in September 2023, and a military tribunal handed him a 20-year sentence—equivalent to a life term in prison—on charges of treason and corruption. However, even during his imprisonment, the military has continued to award tenders to firms owned by Moe Myint Tun’s family to take on construction projects for the Prisons Department and Myanmar Police Force, both part of the junta-controlled Ministry of Home Affairs and funded under the budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year. Phyo Pyae Pyae and Yadanar Moe Htet Aung, two of the companies owned by Moe Myint Tun’s family, secured at least four tenders for construction projects from the prisons department and police force, as confirmed in a statement issued by the junta’s home affairs ministry in an announcement made in early January. The tenders were awarded to companies run by Moe Myint Tun’s wife, Khaing Pa Pa Chit, and their three daughters: Yadanar Moe Myint, 29; Moe Htet Htet Tun, 26; and Khaing Moe Myint, 29. These family members hold directors’ positions in those companies as well as another construction firm, Pin Gangaw, according to the most recent accessible information from Myanmar’s business registry, the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA). The military council began restricting access to records in DICA in September 2022, making it difficult to verify information about any changes in companies’ ownership or management since then. Myanmar Now contacted the Yadanar Moe Htet Aung Company with queries about how the home affairs ministry decided to grant construction contracts to the firm. A female employee responded that the company had won the tenders by bidding competitively against other businesses. “It was a routine process. We followed the standard procedure and competed like other companies. We made our offer for the tender documents, considered our options, and made our choices. That’s all,” she said. She did not respond to Myanmar Now’s questions about the process for awarding contracts in other ministries, or whether the company had received tenders from other ministries. While the details of the contracts won by Moe Myint Tun’s family’s companies are unknown, a businessman in Naypyitaw, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed that the home affairs ministry only grants them to companies connected to the generals, awarding none to any businesses without such connections since the coup. “They only award the tenders to each other when it comes to the Ministry of Home Affairs,” he said.He confirmed that businesses connected to Moe Myint Tun have continued to operate during his imprisonment, and that his family’s companies have received contracts for construction and electric power infrastructure projects. “Depending on the type of tender, it’s likely that Moe Myint Tun’s siblings oversee the construction projects and that employees at the Electric Power Corporation handle the electricity projects,” he added. The businessman also noted that Moe Myint Tun had taken over several tracts of real estate in the junta’s administrative capital of Naypyitaw, and there had been no known actions by junta officials to confiscate these lands during his imprisonment. Before Moe Myint Tun’s arrest, two captains who had graduated in the 49th intake of the Defense Services Academy (DSA) were entrusted with securing tenders for the companies owned by his family, a business source with ties to the military council said. Tenders from most ministerial departments in Naypyitaw, not only the home affairs ministry, are mostly awarded to companies connected with high-ranking generals, the same source said, including businesses owned by family members of Lt-Gen Aung Lin Dwe, a secretary for the military council. His sons Hlaing Bwar Aung, 30, and Phyo Arkar Aung, 28, were the founders of the Aung Myint Moh Lin and Mingalar Aung Myay construction companies, as well as the Shwe Yee Phyo Pyae manufacturing firm. Aung Lin Dwe’s wife Ohnmar Myint was also listed as a director of the Mingalar Aung Myay company as of 2022, according to DICA records. “Aung Lin Dwe’s family handles road and bridge projects on their own, as his children are trained civil engineers," the businessman said. “They own a batching plant located near the Thaikchaung intersection in Zayathiri Township. They hire experts to carry out the work for the electric power projects while reaping most of the profits.” Business has suffered in Myanmar amid a deteriorating economy, exacerbated by the United States’ and other Western countries’ sanctions on entities controlled by junta generals—including junta chief Min Aung Hlaing—and their associates. Under these conditions, well-connected families and firms have increasingly sought to expand their operations in Naypyitaw, one of the few areas of the country where the military has virtually unchallenged control and has been able to maintain security. Opponents of the regime such as the publicly mandated National Unity Government have accused the military of seizing power many times through the generations primarily to safeguard their own economic interests.

Myanmar junta still awarding lucrative contracts to incarcerated general’s family

Even after his imprisonment on corruption bribery and treason charges, companies owned by the family of Lt-Gen Moe Myint Tun, a longtime protégé of junta chief Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, continue to secure tenders from junta ministries

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