Myanmar finance minister under graft probe resigns

YANGON: Finance Minister Kyaw Win has resigned, President Win Myint said on Friday, weeks after local media first reported he was under investigation for alleged corruption.

Kyaw Win was “allowed to resign”, the president said in a statement posted on the presidency’s Facebook page on Friday. The presidential office did not give a reason for the resignation.

Earlier this month, local media reported that Myanmar’s AntiCorruption Commission (ACC) had searched Kyaw Win’s residence. This week, the Yangonbased English-language news magazine Frontier cited the ACC head as saying it was in the final stage of an investigation into corruption allegations against him. Kyaw Win could not be reached for comment, and the Myanmar government spokesman and ACC did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.

ACC spokesmen and the president’s office had previously refused to confirm or deny reports of the raid, according to Frontier. Details of the alleged investigation were not available, but it would be Myanmar’s highest-level corruption probe since de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi came into power in 2016.

Kyaw Win’s resignation came amid growing frustration with Suu Kyi’s management of the economy.

Myanmar replaced its key finance and energy officials last year to address concerns about slower economic growth. Suu Kyi also faces mounting condemnation for a military operation that had sent nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh.