Who buys and controls the CCTV? Back to contents 46 In addition to installing CCTV networks, several tenders also looked to implement monitoring control rooms (where police can monitor and analyse CCTV feeds) for the Yangon–Mandalay Highway in Hlegu, and the ports and bridges along the Yangon River. The implementing authorities of these control rooms are the Ministry of Home Affairs and the police, meaning that surveillance of civilians and their data (including biometric data) will be carried out by both the police and military. Departments responsible for the projects such as the Ministry of Home Affairs and the regional police departments provided little background information to the tender. An examination of the department websites where tenders were published also showed little information to contextualise the CCTV installation. The tenders analysed did not provide constructive information and the requirements used language that was vague and broad. For instance, the tender talks about needing ‘necessary equipment’ and ‘security-related equipment’, without any justification for what qualifies as ‘necessary’, and also without clarifying what purposes such equipment was ‘necessary’ for. Instead, it reads more like an open-ended category of technologies that may be unilaterally declared as ‘necessary’ at any given point in time. Specifications of what and why the technologies were needed were also not mentioned within the tenders. Further, the tender documents did not disclose the specific locations where CCTVs would be installed, nor did they provide information regarding the purpose or scope of these installations. Figure 1 shows a document from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Police Force, and Prison Department in June 2021 as an example of a typical open tender. The tender stated that it was looking for necessary equipment, security-related equipment, inspection equipment, equipment for offices, furniture for offices, vehicles for offices, and other office-related equipment. The document also provided the deadline of the tender and the contact information. There is neither any background or contextual information, nor any justification or mention of the purpose of the required equipment. While they might be mentioned in confidential internal government documents, the equipment that is purchased as a result of the tender can only be found through investigative journalism or leaked documents.92 Given the broad scope of information covered and the high penalties that can be imposed under the Official Secrets Act (1923), inside sources and journalists are in grave danger if they release the information.