18 July
ON the 2nd day of the Second Pyidaungsu Hluttaw’s 13th regular session yesterday, MNHRC Chair U Win Mra read the commission’s annual report for 2018 and vari-ous officials read the budget pro-posals of government institutions for the Hluttaw to deliberate on.
The Speaker first read min-ister appointments for Mandalay Region and Mon State cabinets sent from the President and the Hluttaw put them on record.
Human rights report for 2018
Next, Myanmar National Hu-man Rights Commission Chair U Win Mra read the commission’s annual report for 2018. He said we need to find methods to reduce the inmate population of prisons exceeding 50 per cent of their designated capacity.
The report suggests finding alternatives to locking up drug abusers, such as conducting awareness raising campaigns, administering communal punish-ment, offering health protection and focusing more on arresting the people who distribute the drugs.
U Win Mra said production camps for women in mining op-erations should be closed down as the heavy labour may cause injuries to their wombs over long periods. He said water purifiers should be installed in prisons with the Union budget through annual meetings. He also said necessary health staff should be assigned to administer to the inmates.
He said vocational training courses are properly conduct-ed in Insein Central Prison and Mandalay Central Prison and suggested contacting relevant ministries and private vocational training centers to provide similar courses in other prisons.
U Win Mra said they have witnessed concentrated efforts to help young inmates continue pursuing education in Insein, Mandalay and Obo prisons. He said the inmates who passed ma-triculation exams with distinc-tions were pardoned or had their prison sentence reduced and suggested carrying out similar reductions for the jailed teachers who taught them.
He said the MNHRC is in urgent need of cooperation from the Union Government, Union Ministries and State/Regional Governments in carrying out their various duties. However, he said there has been increased assistance compared to previous years and indicates a promising future for the nation’s human rights affairs. The Speaker then called for MPs interested in discussing the report to enrol their names.
Officials explain budget for 2019-2020 Financial Year
Next, Union-level institutions explained the budgets outlined in the National Planning Bill and Union Budget Bill for 2019-2020 Financial Year.
Deputy Minister U Maung Maung Win explained that the budget for the President’s Office was drawn within the framework given by the Budget Department.
He said K9198.726 million has been accounted for ordinary ex-penditure and K8619.935 million for capital expenditure. Under capital expenditure is the cost for constructing the office for the Ministry of President’s Office at K8606.249 million, while pur-chasing office furniture costed K13.686 million, said the Deputy Minister. He asked the Hluttaw to approve the estimated budget for the President’s Office.
Joint Public Accounts Com-mittee Secretary U Khin Maung Than explained the budget for the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Office. He said staff salary comes out at K901.929 million, Hluttaw session planning and office ad-ministration costs come out at K1,290.331 million, various inter-est payments were at K18.239 million and emergency funds were permitted at K40 million.
He said they proposed for K26.125 million as capital expend-iture. He said they have also pro-posed for K210.450 million (equiv-alent to approx.. US$138,000), under the categories for capital expenditure, loans and support funds, to pay for ICT infrastruc-ture of the Union-level and state/regional Hluttaws.
He said the Finance Com-mission has approved their pro-posals and they await the approv-al of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw.
Next, Deputy Minister U Maung Maung Win explained the budget proposals of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He asked the assembly to approve the proposal of K72,151.299 million for oridi-nary and capital expenditure so that the ministry may perform its duties.
Next, Deputy Minister Maj-Gen Than Htut explained the budget proposals for the Ministry of Border Affairs. He said they have calculated the budget to car-ry out their duties with the least amount of expenses possible and asked the assembly to give their approval.
This was followed by other high-ranking officials explaining the budget proposals of various government institutions for 2019-2020 FY.
The Speaker then an-nounced that the remaining budget proposal readings for will be continued at the next Py-idaungsu Hluttaw meeting on 22 July. —MNA (Translated by Zaw Htet Oo)
