Tuesday 26 November 2013

Myanmar ranked lowest on transparency by Revenue Watch

A US-based non-profit organisation Revenue Watch Institute (RWI) has ranked Myanmar the last of 58 countries on transparency and accountability, Myanmar Peace Monitor reported.

Myanmar received a "failing" score of 4 out of 100 on the Resource Governance Index of RWI, which monitors the transparency and accountability of the management of oil, gas and mineral resources for the public good by the resource-rich nations.

"Almost no information is available on the management of the extractive sector… It is widely assumed that corruption is rampant in the sector," RWI reported.

"Myanmar is still lacking in transparency. For example, Myanmar's fiscal policies are not known. How much is the government's income, and how much the spending? No one has a say about it. And no one also speaks out. There is a long way to go for transparency," an economist noted.

Earlier this year, Transparency International (TI) gave Myanmar a ranking of 172 out of 176 countries. The country scored just 15 out of 100 on the TI's surveys in 2012.

On the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transformation Index (BTI) 2012, Myanmar was ranked 127 out of 128 countries going through political and economic reforms.

"Actually, it is not even known how much foreign loans Myanmar has taken so far, and how they are used. The issue also isn't asked in the parliament. The government fails to inform the public about its income from natural resources and privatization of state-owned assets. Mostly, government tenders lack in transparency. Therefore, there are many things to be reformed in Myanmar," another economist said.

source: Eleven Myanmar

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