Government-appointed headman stealing resources meant for school repairs

February 16, 2009

HURFOM: Since January U Aung Zaw Moe, a headman from Kaloh Tort village, Mudon Township, Mon State, has collected money from every student household in the village to improve the village middle school.

In the last three months Major General That Ning Win has donated 200 bags of cement to improve the school but the headman has sold them and all the money has been spent for his personal use. When the orders came to improve the school, he ordered teachers in the village to collect money from the students’ homes.

U Aung Zaw Moe was appointed the head of the Kaloh Tort village Peace and Development Council (PDC) by government authorities in the Mon State PDC.

According to a villager, a teacher said, “I don’t want to collect money from the students but I have no choice as the order came from the head man. I have to do this to improve the school. He sold all the cement we got from Major General That Ning Win and teachers had to collect money like this.”

The amount of money students had to pay depended on their family incomes. The lowest was 5,000 Kyat and the highest was 6,000 Kyat. There are around 800 households in Kaloh Tort village. Most the households have students at the school.

According to a youth in the village, “some of the households paid and some did not but everybody in village knows he took the cement and sold it. Many household would not pay the money to improve the school.”

In the first week of January he also collected money from villagers for the Mon National Day celebration in the village. Every household had to pay 1,000 Kyat.

According to a youth who was involved in the Mon National Day committee in the village, “all the money he collected from villagers was not used for the Mon National Day celebration because he put it all in his pocket. That man has always done this since he became headman.”

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News