Myanmar Military Disappeared 'Hundreds of Millions' in Coronavirus Aid

A $372 million sum Myanmar’s government received from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in February for pandemic relief has “gone missing” since a military junta seized control in a coup just two days after the aid was issued, Coconuts Yangon reported Wednesday.

“[I]t’s not possible for the Fund to ascertain whether the regime currently in effective control is using the IMF funds as they were intended. Namely, to tackle COVID [Chinese coronavirus] and support the most vulnerable people,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said at a press briefing on November 3.

Rice said the IMF had not made contact with Myanmar’s military junta since it staged a coup on February 1 and declared itself the country’s legitimate ruler.

“I can confirm we are not engaging with the new regime,” the IMF chief said Wednesday. “Again, it falls into that handful of countries where we are guided by international recognition and there’s a lack of clarity around the recognition of the government in Myanmar.”

“So, they are unable to access the SDR allocation or IMF resources,” Rice added.

SDR stands for “Special Drawing Rights.” The IMF created the SDR as an international reserve asset in 1969 to supplement the official reserves of its member countries.

A faction of Myanmar’s military carried out a coup d’état on the morning of February 1. Soldiers of the Myanmar Army detained the country’s then state counselor, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Myanmar’s president at the time, U Win Myint, along with other senior Myanmar government officials.

The military junta then declared a one-year state of emergency, designating Myanmar Commander-in-Chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing as the country’s ruler for the next 12 months.

The Myanmar Army said it felt compelled to seize control of Myanmar’s government because its former administrators had failed to act after the military warned them of alleged fraud during Myanmar’s parliamentary elections in November 2020. Suu Kyi’s ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) secured a majority of seats in the Myanmar parliament by winning the disputed November elections.

Before the coup, Suu Kyi served as Myanmar’s state counselor, which is a role similar to that of a prime minister.

“The government of Aung San Suu Kyi had vowed to disclose any contracts valued over MMK100 million (US$55,000), and its Auditor General committed to releasing quarterly reports on the spending, the only one of which came Jan. 29 concerning the mass purchase of face masks and pharmaceuticals,” Coconuts Yangon recalled on Wednesday, referring to Myanmar’s pandemic-related funds.