Friday, 30 April 2010James O'Toole
The Phnom Penh Post
FRENCH energy company Total confirmed Thursday that it paid the government US$28 million, including $8 million for a “social development programme”, to secure rights to drill for oil offshore in an area claimed by both Thailand and Cambodia.
Penelope Semavoine, a Total spokeswoman in Paris, said Thursday the company had signed the agreement in October with the Cambodia National Petroleum Authority (CNPA) to explore the 2,430-square-kilometre offshore block designated Area III. The company, she added, paid a $20 million signature bonus to the CNPA in January and is planning an $8 million social development fund.
Prime Minister Hun Sen referred to the Total deal in a speech at the Government-Private Sector Forum in Phnom Penh on Tuesday. Rebutting media reports that mining giant BHP Billiton paid bribes to the Cambodian government, the premier said the firm had merely contributed to a social development fund. Total, he noted, “also paid this kind of money”.
Speculation has seized on Cambodia as the origin of an ongoing graft inquiry at BHP in part because of a $2.5 million payment to the government that the company said was for a social fund but that Minister of Water Resources Lim Kean Hor described in 2007 as “tea money”, or an unofficial fee.
Semavoine said Total’s $8 million social fund payment will be “administrated by committees that will include representatives from the CNPA and Total”.
“That will be a social development programme aimed at improving general health, education, culture, and welfare for the people of Cambodia,” she said. Exploration of Area III, she added, will not be undertaken until Cambodia and Thailand reach an agreement on their maritime boundaries.
A deal for the onshore Block 26, which covers an area of 22,050 square kilometres from Phnom Penh to the Vietnamese border, is still under discussion, Semavoine said.
Penelope Semavoine, a Total spokeswoman in Paris, said Thursday the company had signed the agreement in October with the Cambodia National Petroleum Authority (CNPA) to explore the 2,430-square-kilometre offshore block designated Area III. The company, she added, paid a $20 million signature bonus to the CNPA in January and is planning an $8 million social development fund.
Prime Minister Hun Sen referred to the Total deal in a speech at the Government-Private Sector Forum in Phnom Penh on Tuesday. Rebutting media reports that mining giant BHP Billiton paid bribes to the Cambodian government, the premier said the firm had merely contributed to a social development fund. Total, he noted, “also paid this kind of money”.
Speculation has seized on Cambodia as the origin of an ongoing graft inquiry at BHP in part because of a $2.5 million payment to the government that the company said was for a social fund but that Minister of Water Resources Lim Kean Hor described in 2007 as “tea money”, or an unofficial fee.
Semavoine said Total’s $8 million social fund payment will be “administrated by committees that will include representatives from the CNPA and Total”.
“That will be a social development programme aimed at improving general health, education, culture, and welfare for the people of Cambodia,” she said. Exploration of Area III, she added, will not be undertaken until Cambodia and Thailand reach an agreement on their maritime boundaries.
A deal for the onshore Block 26, which covers an area of 22,050 square kilometres from Phnom Penh to the Vietnamese border, is still under discussion, Semavoine said.
7 comments:
Every single oil distributor company gives shared to a CPP minister, or to minister wife.
Those companies have right to maintain gaz price as high as they want.
By doing this they bleed Cambodians, they destroy Cambodian economy.
Bun Rany has shared in one of those company, everybody knows that.
yes tea money. i hard that especially inside the airport in phnom phen. five dollars here and there for tea and coffee money.
Corruption comes in every shape and form. Just like economics, it works based on competition and supply and demand. It is the oldest social ills and the most difficult to iradicate. Only political will could iradicate corruption. On this issue, Cambodia has a long way to go.
Democratic Kampuchea Pol Pot Khmer Rouge Regime
Members:
Pol Pot
Nuon Chea
Ieng Sary
Ta Mok
Khieu Samphan
Son Sen
Ieng Thearith
Kaing Kek Iev
Hun Sen
Chea Sim
Heng Samrin
Hor Namhong
Keat Chhon
Ouk Bunchhoeun
Sim Ka...
Committed:
Tortures
Brutality
Executions
Massacres
Mass Murder
Genocide
Atrocities
Crimes Against Humanity
Starvations
Slavery
Force Labour
Overwork to Death
Human Abuses
Persecution
Unlawful Detention
Cambodian People's Party Hun Sen Khmer Rouge Regime
Members:
Hun Sen
Chea Sim
Heng Samrin
Hor Namhong
Keat Chhon
Ouk Bunchhoeun
Sim Ka...
Committed:
Attempted Murders
Attempted Murder on Chea Vichea
Attempted Assassinations
Attempted Assassination on Sam Rainsy
Assassinations
Assassinated Journalists
Assassinated Political Opponents
Assassinated Leaders of the Free Trade Union
Assassinated over 80 members of Sam Rainsy Party.
"But as of today, over eighty members of my party have been assassinated. Countless others have been injured, arrested, jailed, or forced to go into hiding or into exile."
Sam Rainsy LIC 31 October 2009 - Cairo, Egypt
Executions
Executed over 100 members of FUNCINPEC Party
Murders
Murdered 3 Leaders of the Free Trade Union
Murdered Chea Vichea
Murdered Ros Sovannareth
Murdered Hy Vuthy
Murdered Journalists
Murdered Khim Sambo
Murdered Khim Sambo's son
Murdered members of Sam Rainsy Party.
Murdered activists of Sam Rainsy Party
Murdered Innocent Men
Murdered Innocent Women
Murdered Innocent Children
Killed Innocent Khmer Peoples.
Extrajudicial Execution
Grenade Attack
Terrorism
Drive by Shooting
Brutalities
Police Brutality Against Monks
Police Brutality Against Evictees
Tortures
Intimidations
Death Threats
Threatening
Human Abductions
Human Abuses
Human Rights Abuses
Human Trafficking
Drugs Trafficking
Under Age Child Sex
Corruptions
Bribery
Embezzlement
Treason
Border Encroachment, allow Vietnam to encroaching into Cambodia.
Signed away our territories to Vietnam; Koh Tral, almost half of our ocean territory oil field and others.
Illegal Arrest
Illegal Mass Evictions
Illegal Land Grabbing
Illegal Firearms
Illegal Logging
Illegal Deforestation
Illegally use of remote detonation bomb on Sokha Helicopter, while Hok Lundy and other military officials were on board.
Lightning strike many airplanes, but did not fall from the sky. Lightning strike out side of airplane and discharge electricity to ground.
Source: Lightning, Discovery Channel
Illegally Sold State Properties
Illegally Removed Parliamentary Immunity of Parliament Members
Plunder National Resources
Acid Attacks
Turn Cambodia into a Lawless Country.
Oppression
Injustice
Steal Votes
Bring Foreigners from Veitnam to vote in Cambodia for Cambodian People's Party.
Use Dead people's names to vote for Cambodian People's Party.
Disqualified potential Sam Rainsy Party's voters.
Abuse the Court as a tools for CPP to send political opponents and journalists to jail.
Abuse of Power
Abuse the Laws
Abuse the National Election Committee
Abuse the National Assembly
Violate the Laws
Violate the Constitution
Violate the Paris Accords
Impunity
Persecution
Unlawful Detention
Death in custody.
Under the Cambodian People's Party Hun Sen Khmer Rouge Regime, no criminals that has been committed crimes against journalists, political opponents, leaders of the Free Trade Union, innocent men, women and children have ever been brought to justice.
Madame Semavoine
Vous pouvez prétendre que les 8 millions des fonds de développement social vont être gérés conjointement entre Total et le CNPA.
Tant que vous ne jouez pas la transparence en prenant tous les Cambodgiens à témoin sur l'utilisation de ces fonds, vous serez forcément complice de la corruption pratiquée au vu et au su de tout le monde par les gens du gouvernement actuel.
Est ce que vous pouvez nous promettre de publier régulièrement le rapport relatif à l'utilisation de cet argent des Cambodgiens?
There goes another tea money into the corrupted elites. They called it "Social Fund" while most diverted to their own personal accounts. When Cambodian mass is going to wake up the smell the coffee? They have been stoned far too long by all sort of lies and corrupted schemes orchestrated personally by Hun Sen, Samdach of all Kwaks. Are you one them? I refused to be among the mass.
Where is part of my share?
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