Behind his back they call him “the contractor.”
Even the generals Min Aung Hlaing controls regard him as a uniquely avaricious dictator.
Since the junta boss became the military chief in 2011, his family has gradually monopolized all businesses that profit from Myanmar’s military, ranging from insuring the lives of hapless soldiers, to supplying them with medicine and weapons, as well as hospital beds.
Military sources say the primary vehicle for making money off of soldiers is Authentic Group of Companies. Owned by Min Aung Hlaing’s son Aung Pyae Sone, it is the key partner of the Directorate of Defence Industries (DDI), the unit of Myanmar’s military that produces ammunition and weapons, including armored vehicles and tanks.
Authentic Group has been the key supplier of raw materials to ordnance factories operated by DDI and businesses operated by military-owned Myanmar Economic Corporation for years, especially after former Lieutenant-General Thein Htay retired as head of DDI.
Thein Htay was blacklisted by the US Treasury Department in 2013 for buying military equipment from North Korea in defiance of a United Nations resolution.
While Thein Htay was the head of DDI, contracts for construction of ordnance factories were mainly awarded to two businessmen close to him: Asia Metal Co owned by Kyaw Hoe and Chan Hein Co owned by Kyaw Hein.
After Min Aung Hlaing became military chief in 2011, Authentic Group was favorerd over both companies.
Family businesses owned by Min Aung Hlaing’s son and daughter started getting more heavily involved in military-related businesses, especially after Min Aung Hlaing’s confidant, Lt-Gen Nyo Saw, became quartermaster-general in 2014.
Authentic Group and Sky One Construction Co, both owned by Aung Pyae Sone, were awarded the majority of contracts for military-linked construction projects. Other companies were left with scraps. They could only bid for the smaller projects with little profit that Aung Pyae Sone did not want, business sources said.
On its website, Authentic Group does not list Aung Pyae Sone as a director, but it does name three others with close ties to him.
Sources at MEC and the engineering corps of Myanmar military confirmed that Authentic Group belongs to Aung Pyae Sone.
Aung Myo Hein, Authentic Group’s executive director, is a friend of Aung Pyae Sone. He is also a former military engineer. Another director, Ni Ni Tin Htun, is Aung Myo Hein’s wife, as well as the daughter of Maj-Gen Tin Tun, the head of Military Engineering Corps.
“Aung Myo Hein is just the frontman. The real owner is Aung Pyae Sone,” a former MEC employee told The Irrawaddy.
Authentic Co chairman Dr. Tun Than Tun served as an instructor at the Defense Services Technological Academy where Aung Myo Hein was his student.
An officer who defected from Myanmar’s military after the Feb. 2021 coup to join the Civil Disobedience Movement said Min Aung Hlaing was given the nickname “contractor” because he turned tours of military facilities into opportunities for drumming up business.
When he visits military units, he looks for old buildings to be replaced by newly constructed ones, the former officer said.
Min Aung Hlaing never asks military engineering units to take charge of the construction. Instead, he commissions companies owned by his relatives to do the work, the officer explained.
“Behind his back, [personnel] say the contractor is coming, or he is coming to find [construction] projects. It is because … when he visits battalion [compounds] he says this or that building is not good, and they need to be repaired or rebuilt,” the officer added.
According to procedure, construction is the responsibility of the general engineering unit of the military. If it can’t handle a project on its own, a tender must be offered and the company that submits the bid with the highest quality and lowest price must be chosen.
However, this process is not followed by Min Aung Hlaing. If he points to a construction project, commanders have to take notes and commission his son or a construction company with ties to him to build it, the former officer said.
Authentic Group constructed a hospital building and four-floor quarters for women officers at a 1,000-bed military hospital in Yangon’s Mingalardon Township. The swiftly constructed buildings needed repairs in less than a year, but there was no criticism because the company responsible was owned by Min Aung Hlaing’s son.
Aung Pyae Sone and businessmen with ties to him also monopolize the supply of high-cost medicine to Myanmar’s military, according to the former military officer.
Authentic Group also built Kan Thar Yar Hospital and Moe Kaung Maternal and Child Hospital. Min Aung Hlaing and his family have stakes in both hospitals.
Authentic Group reportedly received the largest share of cement sold in quota by state-owned cement factories.
Apart from building ordnance factories, Authentic Group also supplies them with PVC pipes and water-storage tanks, which it makes. It also imports plastic pellets to supply businesses operated by the MEC, a military engineer who defected said.
Thitsar Co, a unit of Authentic Group in Yangon’s Pale Township, produces PVC pipes that are sold to ordnance factories. Authentic Group also supplies water to households in Yangon, Ayeyarwady Region’s Pathein Township and Mandalay Region’s Meiktila Township.
Its website shows that it has interests in construction, trade, manufacturing, water, waste-water treatment and communications.
Ethics, humanity and integrity are among its core values, according to its website.
“We love humans,” it says.
