Doubts over Hun Sen's modest salary claims

Can you trust this comrade?

April 5, 2011
ABC Radio Australia

Non-government groups say the Cambodian Prime Minister's comments about his relatively modest salary don't tell the full story about his wealth.

More than 100,000 state officials and heads of civilian organisations are required to declare their property, vehicles, business interests and other assets under the anti-graft law, passed in 2010. On the first of April, Prime Minister Hun Sen declared his assets to the country's new Anti-Corruption Unit.

Under the law, that declaration remains confidential... However, afterwards, Hun Sen told reporters he earned a monthly salary of 1,150 US dollars. The comments were criticised by Mam Sitha, president of the non-governmental group, Cambodia Independent Anti-Corruption Committee, who said there was an "imbalance between the size of his salary and his current wealth."

Presenter: Liam Cochrane

Speaker: George Boden, Global Witness campaigner

Click here to listen to the audio program (Windows Media)

BODEN: Ahh I think it would be very difficult to believe that Hun Sen and his family were only living off the wages that he declared to reporters recently. I think that'd be unrealistic and certainly looking at some of his assets and some of the things that he's known to have, he seems to have a lot more wealth than that. I think one of the biggest concerns about the assets that he actually declared in his declaration, they don't include a whole series of different things, so money in foreign bank accounts etc., I don't think would be disclosed in that kind of disclosure. And even if he did disclose it, nobody has access to that asset declaration anyhow, so it would be very difficult to ascertain the information.

COCHRANE: You're talking about bank accounts offshore?

BODEN: Certainly we don't know, it's important to state that as an organisation although we've managed to ascertain some of the business interests of people very close to Hun Sen, we've never found any revelations that was explicitly about him. But my point is more general in that the asset declarations for senior officials and other officials required to declare, doesn't necessarily include all of the ways that people can keep money. So it might include houses and salaries for example, it wouldn't necessarily include all of the bank account information. So it's not a true and accurate picutre of the entire wealth of an individual.

COCHRANE: Has there ever been an estimate as to Hun Sen's wealth or earning capabilities?

BODEN: I have heard informally, a rumour that certainly he's worth if not hundreds of millions, I think I've even heard a billion. But I think he's very, very wealthy and I think it would be very difficult given the way that the people, that that amount of money it's just incredibly difficult to get an idea. But I think it's fair to say that he certainly seems to have a lot more than the one-thousand dollars a month that he claims.

COCHRANE: Keeping in mind that as you pointed out, Global Witness organisation and the media has never made a formal direct link between Hun Sen and corruption, couldn't we see the Prime Minister's actions in declaring his assets as leading by example in tackling corruption in Cambodia?

BODEN: I mean there are huge problems not only with the asset declaration system, but also with the anti-corruption law. The biggest problem really, I've already outlined some of the concerns about asset declaration is that it's not publicly available, nobody checks the amount, it doesn't include all of the ways that people can keep money, and also it doesn't include people's family members. So obviously were somebody to wish to hide or not disclose money then they could keep it in their son's bank account or one of their family members, business interests for example. So it's not an effective system, I think it's one of the crucial problems. But the major, major issue with the whole Anti-Corruption Unit, and this isn't only asset declarations but also for the prosecutions etc., it's presided over by senior members of the CPP, and this anti-corruption unit case is about Aung Yang Chang(?) who is close to Prime Minister Hun Sen and that senior cabal of individuals, and so it seems very unlikely that those people would ever be able to take a prosecution or would investigate any of the senior cabinet officials that we know to be involved in corruption. And there are people that we've shown in our investigations, senior Cambodian senators, who are involved in corruption, they have been involved in wholesale sale-offs of Cambodia's natural resources ranging from forests through to mining, oil and gas; and none of these people have been investigated into this. And I think given how close the control of the anti-corruption bodies is held by Prime Minister Hun Sen and those close to him, and it does seen very unlikely that that kind of high level corruption will ever be investigated.