Who buys and controls the CCTV? Back to contents 42 According to Directive No. 1/2017, tender procedures are to be followed by the government departments and organisations in construction, purchase, procurement of services, lease, and sale. Article 10(a) states that a value of less than MMK 10 million (USD 5,400) does not require calling for a tender; however, the Tender Committee must request fee proposals from at least three trustworthy companies. Article 10(b) states for projects valued from MMK 10 million to MMK 100 million (USD 5,400–54,000), the tender announcement has to be published two weeks before the tender opening date on the notice boards of the relevant ministry, general administration department, and the district and township administration office. Article 10(c) states for projects over MMK 100 million (USD 54,000) the tender has to be announced at least twice in state-owned newspapers one month before the tender opening date, on relevant department’s notice boards and, if possible, on the ministry’s website.82 Despite the public procurement process outlined above, the Mandalay Regional Government directly awarded the contract to Huawei for the Mandalay smart city CCTV surveillance system without a tender process. The justification for the lack of a tender process was based on tender Directive No. 1/2017 without citing any specific article. No tender was called as the project was considered to be in the public interest and required a huge investment, and because Huawei had already been internally accredited.83 Apart from having no legal basis, this also violates Myanmar’s obligations under the UN Convention against Corruption, which the country signed and ratified.84 Under the Convention, Article 9 requires ‘public distribution of information relating to procurement procedures and contracts, including information on invitations to tender and relevant pertinent information on the award of contracts, allowing potential tenderers sufficient time to prepare and submit their tenders’ and ‘establishment, in advance, of conditions for participation, including selection and award criteria and tendering rules, and their publication’, and finally ‘use of objective and predetermined criteria for public procurement decisions, to facilitate the subsequent verification of the correct application of the rules or procedures’. This expedited process was implemented arbitrarily by the government – Directive No. 1/2017 does not carve out any such exceptions. Given that the