UN says Myanmar goverment has been stealing aid

The UN has admitted that nearly US$10 million of the aid meant for the survivors of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar has been skimmed off by the ruling junta.

In a well-planned cash scam, which is still running, the military regime of the country has insisted the UN aid agencies buy the local currency, the kyat, at a higher rate from banks run by the government.

According to the Telegraph newspaper, the UN agencies are forced to buy the kyat through government backed Foreign Exchange Certificates. One FEC buys only 880 kyat, while in value one FEC on the open market is worth about 1,100 kyat.

In this way US$10 million of aid has been lost, according to Sir John Holmes, the UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs.A UN spokesman in Rangoon also told the newspaper that the exact losses were still being calculated.

Experts believe that the losses could be higher as the discrepancy in exchange rates since the cyclone hit Myanmar in May has been around 25 percent.

The scandal was first exposed in June by a New York blog which received a leak of minutes from a teleconference in which officials raised their concern over the scandal.However, top officials in Myanmar denied such reports.

On July 10th, they launched an appeal for another US $299 million in cyclone aid.The UN has spent US$200 million on aid to Myanmar since the cyclone struck.

taken from : http://www.myanmarnews.net/story/387930