YANGON, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's former Tanintharyi Region Chief Minister Daw Lei Lei Maw was sentenced to a 30-year imprisonment in connection with four graft cases which violated the Anti-Corruption Law, an official of the regional court told Xinhua on Friday.
"She can apply for an appeal within 90 days," said Daw Aye Aye Than, chief officer of justice of Tanintharyi Region Court.
The female chief minister who relieved of her duty in March last year, was arrested and charged with corruption, along with three local company officials after the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed cases against her under Article 55 of the Anti-Corruption Law.
Lei Lei Maw is the first chief minister to be charged with corruption since the incumbent government, led by the National League for Democracy (NLD), took power in 2016.
According to the commission's findings, she had been abusing her position as the regional chief minister and committed corruption since April 2016.
In October 2018, she was found to allocate 1.9 billion kyats of the regional government funds to the Road Management Department under the Construction Ministry, contradictory to the budgetary management rules set by the government and failed to pay the department for building fences for two compounds owned by her husband until when the commission started investigations.
It was also found that she abused her position in granting a number of projects to a local company F-22 Sunny Construction Co., Ltd, including construction of a pavilion for traditional Thingyan Water Festival and a costly mowing contract near Dawei Airport worth 400 million kyats (285,714 U.S. dollars) without undergoing any tender process or holding a government meeting for approval of the project in 2016, the ACC's report said.
For third case, the former regional chief minister favored the Global Grand Services (GGS) in a joint venture contract for electricity generation between the company and the regional government and the Electricity and Energy Ministry had to pay 8 billion kyats (5.7 million U.S. dollars) leaving the loss of the state money as the company failed to pay the money to the government in 2017.
The commission's investigation also discovered that Lei Lei Maw sold her two-storey house to the GGS company at a much higher price in exchange for granting the company permission for construction projects.
The managing director and director of the GGS were sentenced to 10-year imprisonment each while a manager of the company received a five-year imprisonment for involvement in two cases.
A house in Thayetchaung township owned by the former chief minister was confiscated by the regional court and declared it as a state property on Friday.
Myanmar signed the United Nations Convention against Corruption in December 2012 and its Anti-Corruption Law took effect in September 2013. Enditem
