YANGON—The Myanmar Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has filed a lawsuit against the manager of a Myanmar Agricultural Development Bank branch in Irrawaddy Region’s Kyaunggon Township for allegedly misappropriating agricultural loans.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the ACC accused Daw Mar Lar Tin of abusing her position to line her pockets while serving in a previous post at the bank’s Myaungmya Township branch.
According to the statement, in August 2017 Daw Mar Lar Tin asked a group of 14 farmers from a village in Myaungmya Township to pay her 700,000 kyats to approve their request for a loan. She made the demand one day after they repaid an earlier loan taken out in 2016 to cover the cost of cultivating rice paddy. The amount she demanded was equivalent to 5 percent of the new loan.
The commission has filed a lawsuit against her at Myaungmya Township Police Station under Article 56 of the Anti-Corruption Law.
This case is the second brought by the ACC this month.
The commission on May 16 filed lawsuits against three individuals—former Khin U Township judge Daw Yi Yi Mon (now a judge in Kyauktaga Township), a lawyer and a court guard—under articles 56 and 63 of the Anti-Corruption Law.
Daw Yi Yi Mon fled the legal action against her, prompting the Home Affairs Ministry to issue an arrest warrant for her on Monday.
The new cases follow a comment from ACC Chairman U Aung Kyi during his presentation of the commission’s annual report for 2018 to the Union Parliament on April 29 that, despite the agency’s best efforts, the overall level of corruption in the country had not declined.
He told Parliament the commission would carry out more investigations and prosecutions this year.
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