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Home News National Amnesty Office Contractors Cry Out, Say "We Are Dying, Come To Our...
Amnesty Office Contractors Cry Out, Say "We Are Dying, Come To Our Aid"
Hector Spiff
The heartbreaking delayed payment of contractors at the Presidential Amnesty Programme PAP office has once again come to the fore as this has continued to have a debilitating toll on their health report says.
An online statement made available to journalists observed that, "The decay in the Amnesty office is becoming worse every day. As vendors we will keep our identities discreet to avoid victimization. We need your help in revealing these anomalies in the amnesty office, as it is really affecting us as businessmen and momen. We have records of some of us who have died or currently hospitalized from the pressure of being owed indefinitely by the presidential amnesty office."
Victor Okame an amnesty beneficiary said, "Our investigations revealed that the delay in payment of contractors is due to sharp illegal practices happening in the office. The public is aware that a committee was saddled with the responsibility of investigating and verifying awarded, Ongoing and Completed Contracts in the Amnesty Office. This committee carried out their duties and came up with recommendations, including lists of verified contracts that should be paid.
"Currently all the recommendations of the committee setup by Mr. President are being ignored. The Interim Administrator, Col. Dikio Milland in collaboration with the Directors of Finance and Procurement are currently processing payments of files and contractors that were not cleared by the committee setup by Mr. President, Through the Office of the National Security Adviser. Currently the Interim Administrator and the Director of Finance have cronies who have been approaching vulnerable contractors, collecting fees ranging from 10 to 20% of their contract values, to be assured of payments. We have evidence of these transactions and would release them if we are pushed to the wall.
"To give a hint on our facts, one Comrade Wilson Ikoli, who claims to be the Chief of Staff to the IA and another Miss Ebiye, an aide to the Director of Finance are the people both officials use to strike their deals. This is not only illegal and unjust, but also wicked to the many vendors who have executed their jobs either through loans or personal funds. We call on the NSA to setup an independent body to carry out these payments as the current process has been compromised and is clouded with secrecy and fraud.
"The attached picture shows one of us who is currently having heart failure due to piled up bank interests from loans he took to execute Amnesty contracts. He has been owed since 2018. The bank interests have exceeded his profit, and even after being paid from the Amnesty Office he will still owe the bank. This is just one of the issues we are facing."
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More than 80 dead after rifle grenades land on Myanmar protesters
More than 80 people have been killed by rifle grenades in yet more violent clashes between the military and protesters in Myanmar.
Bodies were piled up in a pagoda in the town of Bago after Myanmar security forces opened fire on a protest against the 1 February military coup in the country.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) monitoring group said it believed there were 82 dead.
Image: Heavy clashes erupted during demonstrations in Yangon. Pic: AP
Protest organiser Ye Htut told news outlet Myanmar Now: "It is like genocide.
"They are shooting at every shadow."
More from Aung San Suu Kyi
Image: Anti-coup protesters take positions behind their makeshift barricade. Pic: AP
Many residents of the town 55 miles (90km) northeast of Yangon have fled, according to social media.
Myanmar's military seized power in a coup in February, forcing elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi into detention.
Heavy clashes have erupted between protesters and the ruling junta – which has cut internet connections, imposed a curfew and a law banning more than five people from congregating in an effort to stop demonstrations that have sprung up since the takeover.
Some members of security forces have used extreme violence, driving tanks into major cities and opening fire on the crowds.
Image: Relatives of a man who was shot dead during a crackdown on anti-coup protesters in Yangon
The military said it staged the coup because a November election won by Aung San Suu Kyi's party was rigged – an assertion dismissed by the election commission.
The reports of killings in Bago come less than a week after the AAPP said that at least 43 children died in violence since the takeover.
The strongest weapon in Myanmar is a phone
More than 600 people have died in total, according to AAPP, a figure disputed by the military.
Junta spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun told a news conference on Friday in the capital, Naypyitaw, the military had recorded 248 civilian deaths and 16 police deaths – and said no automatic weapons had been used by security forces.
Refugees flee airstrikes in Myanmar
Meanwhile, an alliance of ethnic armies that has opposed the junta's crackdown attacked a police station in the east on
Saturday and at least 10 policemen were killed, domestic media said.
The police station at Naungmon in Shan state was attacked early in the morning by fighters from an alliance that includes the Arakan Army, the Ta'ang National Liberation Army and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, it was reported.
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Not Now, SpeechNow
David Weigel | 7.2.2008 1:03 PM
There will be no preliminary injunction for SpeechNow.org, the pro-free speech-in-politics group profiled by Jacob Sullum here. The group can't run ads attacking Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.) and Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), according to the ruling of a D.C. district court.
Plaintiffs' argument presents a false syllogism that relies on a "crabbed view of corruption, and particularly of the appearance of corruption" that is at odds with Supreme Court precedent…
Second, that SpeechNow cannot literally funnel contributions to candidates, and therefore cannot serve as a vehicle for the direct exchange of dollars for political favors, is not dispositive. The Supreme Court has long acknowledged that "corruption," in the sense that word is used in campaign finance law, "extends beyond explicit cash-for-votes agreements to 'undue influence on an officeholder's judgment.'"
Democracy 21 does the Snoopy dance, which is to be expected, since the group's first reaction to political speech is "how illegal was that?" The New York Sun has some depressing quotes.
"He is saying to be truly independent is impossible, but that is the exception that swallows the First Amendment," a lawyer backing the challenge, Steven Simpson of the Institute for Justice, said, vowing an appeal. "People have the right to speak. They don't have to apologize for the fact that other people might abuse that right."
A supporter of campaign finance regulation, Tara Malloy of the Campaign Legal Center, praised the ruling. "The idea that 527 groups are sort of magically independent really doesn't withstand scrutiny," she said.
If you want a few non-magical opinions about free campaign speech, dig into reason's archives. Michael Lynch chewed over the issue with FEC commissioner Brad Smith in 2001.
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David Weigel is a contributing editor at Reason.