Military demands access to social media accounts to award govt contracts

Khalid Umar Malik
08 Aug 2022, 17:09 GMT+10

According to a leaked internal document obtained by the press, companies awarded government contracts are being investigated by Myanmar's junta for possible ties to anti-regime forces.
According to the document, which is an inter-departmental order shared by the junta's department of information and technology and special investigation department offices in Naypyitaw ...
The order states that the companies must be investigated for "affiliations with such organizations," referring to resistance groups as "extremist terrorist organizations.".

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar - According to a leaked internal document obtained by the press, companies awarded government contracts are being investigated by Myanmar's junta for possible ties to anti-regime forces.

According to the document, which is an inter-departmental order shared by the junta's department of information and technology and special investigation department offices in Naypyitaw and 12 of the country's 14 states and regions, nearly 200 companies will be screened for ties to the resistance.

The order states that the companies must be investigated for "affiliations with such organizations," referring to resistance groups as "extremist terrorist organizations."

According to business sources, new rules have been implemented that require any company seeking to win a government contract to go through a vetting process by the Naypyitaw Council, which administers the junta-controlled capital.

"Because of such rules, no ordinary company will dare to bid on any of their projects anymore, which may have been their goal in the first place," said an anonymous business owner.

He said that companies and employees must submit official documents and grant full access to their social media accounts. According to him, any post implying anti-regime sentiment can be used to prosecute the account owner.

However, he concluded that such measures were meaningless because no business opposing the regime would bother to bid on a government contract as long as the junta remained in power.

"It's also true that the generals don't usually look outside of Naypyitaw for bidders," he said, adding that most projects are awarded to companies with military ties.

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