Bangladesh, Burma and the Rohingya crisis 33 determined to see that happening. There will be a benefit to the UK, but principally it is of benefit to Burma, the development of the Burma economy, and of course the politics as well.95 65. Burma Campaign UK has found an example of why there needs to be policies ensuring no UK aid ends up directly or indirectly benefitting the military. Irrawaddy Green Towers in Burma was created from development aid loans from European countries, including CDC group, under the control of DFID. It is working for MYTEL, the new mobile phone company set up by the Burmese military in conjunction with the Vietnamese military, so it could be deemed that UK aid is helping the Burmese military make money. We have also been told of a UK part funded programme to build an overpass in Yangon, even though DFID acknowledges that the military businesses are heavily involved in transport and infrastructure. 66. Richard Montgomery from DFID told us: In terms of our due diligence, this is about digging into not just the partners we work with but also the downstream partners that they work with or that are included in our programmes. There is a facility that we have brought in that does that digging for us.96 However, he also admitted that: there are some donors and multilaterals that will provide finance to the Government, which, in principle, includes UK taxpayers’ money. Whenever the World Bank lends, that is 15% of our money in IDA.97 67. We note that at the same time as we were denied visas to visit Burma, the UK government was hosting a trade delegation from Burma including members of the Burmese government. In response to this report we would like the UK Government to set out how its support for UK/Burma trade takes into account concerns about the Burmese military’s involvement in the economy and human rights abuses. This should include information covering UK spending other than ODA or which is through funds and programmes outside of DFID’s control, for example the Prosperity Fund. Parliamentary Strengthening 68. DFID said: 95 96 97 98 • DFID is supporting parliamentary strengthening and electoral processes by funding domestic civil society to observe elections, and supporting women’s political participation and leadership; and • By July 2017, DFID had improved electoral governance and increased access to civic and voter education. 492,930 voter education materials were distributed and 34,000 of these materials were translated into five ethnic languages.98 Q248 Q252 Q253 Department for International Development (DBB016)