Jelson Garcia, who has accused Myanmar of possessing US$11 billion in five foreign bank accounts, does not speak for the World Bank, according to a statement released by the World Bank.
Garcia is a manager of the Asia Program for the Bank Information
Centre (BIC). Before working at BIC, he was involved with the Office of
the Philippine President’s Program for Unification and Development. He
was most recently employed with the Humanitarian Competency Program of
World Vision-Asia Pacific’s Disaster Management Office. The BIC is an
independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization that advocates
for the protection of rights, participation, transparency, and public
accountability in the governance and operations of the World Bank Group
and regional development banks, according to BIC’s official website.
Ye Htut, spokesman for President Thein Sein, issued the following
statement on his Facebook page on Thursday evening: “The government has
not used state funds to open accounts in foreign banks. If they have
enough evidence to prove it, the government will be ready to take
action.”
He stated only that the government does not possess US$11 billion in
foreign bank accounts. But whether or not someone has possessed these
funds is not stated. His statement neither confirmed nor denied that the
money is in foreign bank accounts.
If the accounts are revealed to be privately owned, some observers
say, the public will demand that the funds be returned to the state and
its people.
The World Bank has not dismissed the allegation that Myanmar
possesses US$11 billion. It has said only that Jelson Garcia works for
the BIC and does not represent the World Bank or speak on its behalf.
source: Eleven Myanmar
No comments:
Post a Comment