wners of Shine Construction, Mother Land Group Construction and Great Father Land Construction Decoration were among 17 contractors and four engineers to have their licences taken away by Yangon City Development Committee last week.
U Aung Zaw Win of Shine Construction, U Tin Myint of Mother Land and Daw Thu Zar of Father Land have been suspended from working indefinitely, said U Nay Win, deputy director of YCDC’s engineering department (buildings).
All three are co-owners of companies that have built a large number of mid-range residential buildings across Yangon, often to replace colonial apartments in the downtown area.
None could be reached for comment yesterday.
“This is the first time YCDC has revoked any licences,” said U Nay Win. “Those on the list will be blacklisted for different lengths of time, depending on how severely they have broken the rules,” he said, adding that some may be banned from the construction industry for life.
“We have sent warning letters to all the contractors and engineers. If they disobey us again, we will revoke their licences again for a year or two, and if they continue to break the rules we will permanently ban them from working.”
A number of the contractors have already appeared in court, he added. “Some are in court, others have failed to apply for Building Completion Certificates (BCC) after finishing new projects.” Other crimes include dodging rules on installing transformers in new buildings.
All contractors in Yangon must pay a deposit to the local authority – K50 million if they are a large company or K20 million for a small company. It is not clear whether offenders will lose their deposits.
While certain contractors at companies such as Shine and Father Land are punished, the other shareholders in these companies can continue business as normal, or register new companies.
Absent from the blacklist is former owner of Father Land U Kyaw Myint, an alleged swindler who appeared in Latha Township Court earlier this year, accused of forging a landowner’s signature while applying for a construction permit.
He also faces trial in a case opened by Botahtaung police for misusing more than K300 million.
While only four engineers have been banned so far, many more will be struck off “very soon”, said U Nay Win.
“The four on the list do not live in Myanmar, but they have sold their licences on, so we revoked them and will do the same in other similar cases,” he said.
Quoted from mmtimes.
