Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Namsan Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) reportedly has collected a 500,000 kyat (US$ 575) surcharge when selling landline telephones distributed by Myanmar Telecommunication Department, according to residents who filed a complaint.
The landline phones were priced at 700,000 kyat (US$ 805), according to reports, but the Namsan TDPC resold them at a price of 1.2 million kyat (US$ 1,380) per phone to the public, residents said.When phone subscribers informed higher authorities about the pricing policy, an investigation was launched.
‘We personally visited and met phone subscribers and inquired about these complaints’, said a Loilem District official, Secretary Kyaw Than.
He told Mizzima that local residents complained that they had to pay a surcharge of $230 plus an additional 300,000 kyat ($345), totaling a $575 surcharge to the local TPDC. The Myanmar Telecommunication Department made 200 automatic exchange landline phones available to Nam San residents in December 2010.
According to sources close to the TPDC office, township officials informed the telecommunication department that they collected only 900,000 kyat ($1,035) from subscribers, including a 200,000 kyat ($230) ‘development fund’ for the township.
The Nam San TPDC chairman, Tin Myint, told Mizzima that the surcharge was collected from subscribers with the consent of all TPDC members, after consulting with them about development work in the township.
‘Yes, I collected this money, but it is not a bribe or unfair collection’, he said. ‘I collected the money for township development’. The local Nam San Township Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI) investigated the case on December 8, 2010.
A phone subscriber told Mizzima that the BSI questioned 15 phone subscribers and officials from the TPDC. Their statements reportedly confirmed the complaints, but no action has been taken against the officials.
‘All wrongdoings have been exposed by the inquiry and inspections made by the BSI and district, and they found the discrepancy between official reports and actual collection of surcharges. But no action has yet been taken. The officials concerned passed the buck between them’, he said.
He said that local subscribers would continue to lodge complaints with higher authorities.
