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| Suy Sem, the minister of Industry, Mines and Energy and his wife |
Colin Kruger
Business Day
OZ MINERALS and the Cambodian government have been forced to deny allegations of impropriety over reports that a transaction by OZ Minerals in 2009 led to hundreds of thousands of dollars being paid to the relatives of government officials.
The news comes as the US Securities and Exchange Commission continues its investigations into Cambodian bribery allegations involving BHP Billiton.
BHP has yet to confirm or deny that the investigations relate to a $US1 million ($936,000) payment to the Cambodian government in 2006 to secure bauxite leases.
The Cambodia Daily reported yesterday that OZ Minerals bought out Shin Ha, its partner in a goldmine, in 2009. More than $US1 million of the proceeds went to three women on the partner's board, who were reportedly closely related to officials in government departments, including the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy (MIME).
The newspaper said the trio were appointed in 2006, just before Shin Ha concluded a joint venture agreement with Oxiana, headed by Owen Hegarty. The company was later named OZ Minerals after merging with Zinifex.
An OZ Minerals' spokeswoman said an investigation by the company had not found any evidence of wrongdoing. ''Wherever we operate, we act in accordance with local regulations and with international standards. We deny any allegations of inappropriate business practices,'' she said.
The Cambodian Minister for Industry, Mines and Energy, Suy Sem, said no ministry officials had received any payments and the ministry had strictly observed the law, the newspaper reported.
In Cambodia, government officials are not allowed to have business interests and are required to declare their assets. This disclosure does not extend to relatives.
OZ Minerals has only recently put another controversy behind it. Last month it paid $60 million to settle two class-action lawsuits that claimed shareholders had lost hundreds of millions of dollars when the miner failed to disclose its true debt position during the global financial crisis.
The company had to sell all its operating mines, except Prominent Hill, to China Minmetals in June 2009 for $US1.39 billion after it failed to reach an agreement with it banks to repay this debt.
It only survived as a separate company when the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, blocked the sale of Prominent Hill, a copper and goldmine in South Australia.
OZ Minerals also retained the gold exploration rights in Cambodia, which could provide more disappointment. In April the company said it was reviewing the future of its gold exploration in the country after failing to find a sufficiently large resource base to justify production.
Meanwhile, BHP said yesterday that its internal investigation into Cambodia bribery allegations was continuing and that it had passed on to US authorities ''evidence that it has uncovered regarding possible violations of applicable anti-corruption laws involving interactions with government officials''.
Cambodia has been beset by claims of corruption in government and civil society.
A report by Transparency International, Global Witness , in 2009 said Cambodia's regulation of its extractive industries suffered "a total lack of transparency in the ownership of companies with the responsibility to handle public assets, and the destination of payments made to secure these concessions".
Australia has yet to prosecute a single case of foreign bribery.
10 comments:
Those are Yuon CPP crooks and Yuon thick-faced bitch smiling like evil and dressing up like Khmer woman. Everything in Cambodia is not belonged to you, Yuon idiot and bitch. You should return all of those back to innocent Khmer/Cambodian people.
Go to the hell, all of Yuon thieves of CPP and Hun Sen's Yuon family members.
it's probably was corrupted deal, given the nature of the privacy of it! sometimes, foreigners do feeding into corrutpion, there are bad apple among some good apple as well, you know. i wouldn't doubt it, especially if it only benefit small group of people and business nature of it, really! well, it is good to bring it up and talk about it publicly, though!
Behind these smiling teeth, what is lurking behind there?
IF the Corrupted Official get caught sell the Cambodia country. They need to bring in to served Justic! Theirs wealth should go back to the people of Cambodia.
real corruption man
EVIDENCE OF POLITICALLY-MOTIVATED EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS AND KILLINGS OF FUNCINPEC LOYALISTS.
LIST OF INSTANCES OF EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS during 1997 coup by PM Hun Sen. These people with their name list below were murdered by PM Hun Sen.
• Ho Sok, 45, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Interior and second ranking FUNCINPEC official in the Ministry of Interior.
• 2-3. Gen Chao Sambath, alias Ngov, Deputy-Chief of the Intelligence and Espionage Department, RCAF Supreme Command since 1993
• 4 and 5. Maj. Gen. Ly Seng Hong, Deputy-Chief of Staff, RCAF General Staff (second highest-ranking FUNCINPEC official in the RCAF General
• 6. Colonel Sok Vireak, Chief, Transmission Bureau, Army General Staff. A former KPNLF General Staff officer in charge of military training who joined Nhek Bun Chhay after the Paris Agreements. Status
• 7. Colonel Thlang Chang Sovannarith, Deputy Chief-of-Staff of the Fifth Military Region, RCAF General Staff
• 8. Colonel Hov Sambath, Deputy-chief of Military Training Bureau, RCAF General Staff
• 9. Lietenant Colonel Sao Sophal, 42, an officer of the First Bureau of the RCAF General Staff.
• 10. Navy First Lt. Thach Soeung, aged about 30, an ethnic Khmer from southern Vietnam, stationed at Dang Kaum Navy base on the eastern bank of the Tonle Sap.
• 11 to 14. Seng Phally, Lt. Col. Chao Keang, Chao Tea and Thong Vickika - security officers working under Gen. Chao Sambath.
• Seng Phally, alias Huot Phally, aged 25, single, a gendarme who worked as chief of the security team at the Pipoplok 2 Hotel/Casino
• Lt. Col. Chao Keang, aged about 25. He was an officer in the Research and Intelligence Bureau of Chao Sambath
• Chao Tea, 29, brother of Chao Keang, a security guard at the Regal Hotel/Casino. His body bore a bullet hole in the left side of the chest and in the right side of the stomach. He was also handcuffed and blindfolded
• Thong Vicchika, aged about 27-28, a body-guard of Chao Sambath and a security staff at the Regal Hotel/Casino.
• Dr. Seng Kim Ly, a military medical doctor
• Major Lak Ki, Head of Operations, Research and Intelligence, RCAF High Command
• Four unnamed body-guards of Nhek Bun Chhay were summarily executed after his office-cum-house in Somnang
• Major Lak Ki, Head of Operations, Research and Intelligence, RCAF High Command
• Pheap, a body-guard of Major Lak Ki, in his late twenties
• Dok Rany, 27, an officer and body-guard of Gen. Chao Sambath who worked at the Research and Intelligence Bureau
• Ros Huon, aged 23, Sopheap, aged 25, two alleged members of the Gendarmerie
• Dok Sokhun, alias Michael Senior, a Khmer-Canadian journalist who taught English at ACE Language School in Phnom Penh
• Major Aek Eng (CPP), Head of Administration of Phnom Penh Thmei police station
• At least four, and possibly up to 22 persons described as FUNCINPEC soldiers executed and cremated in Pich Nil on 9, 10 and 11 July 1997 by Military Region 3 soldiers. Status: Confirmed executions in at least 4 cases
• 34 to 36 (and possibly 45). On 17 July, at about noon time, the body of a soldier was witnessed floating near the bank of the Tone Bassac near the Watt Chum Leap, in the village of the same name, Rokakpong commune, Saang district, Kandal province. The body was headless and both hands were tied up behind the back with a kramma. It was dressed in dark olive military uniform
• 37 and 38. Two unidentified men, blindfolded and with their hands tied behind the back. Status: Confirmed executions
• Pheap, aged 33, a bodyguard of the First Prime Minister. Status: Confirmed execution.
• Sok Vanthorn, 21 and Sou Sal, two villagers from Ampeov village, Kompong Speu province. Status: Confirmed execution.
• Brig. Gen. Chea Rittichutt, a founding member of the Moulinaka movement and the Governor of Kep-Bokor
• Navy officer Meas Sarou, Deputy-director, First Bureau, Navy, based in Chrouy Changvar, and one of his body-guards, and a third person, a woman named Luch.
• Ung Sim, Second Deputy Governor, Kompong Speu province - missing since his arrest, reportedly near Pich Nil by CPP soldiers on 7 or 8 July 1997.
• Col. Sam Sarath, Deputy Chief-of-Staff, Third Military Region
• Put Som Ang, male, aged 42, a KNP activisit in Siem Reap province, and Sam Sophan, 38, an activist in Takeo province
• Major So Lay Sak and Major Chin Vannak, officers working in the Logisitics department of the RCAF General Staff
• Som Taing, Deputy Chief, Inspection Office, Provincial Governor's Office, Kompong Speu
• Chum Sarith, Chief, Criminal Bureau, Provincial Police, Sihanoukville
Forty-six bodies were brought in and dumped at the crematorium of a Phnom Penh pagoda between 5 and 9 July
In the case of Ho Sok (executed on 7 July, brought to Watt Lanka on 8 July); of Seng Phally, Chao Keang, Chao Tea and Thong Viccheka (executed on 5-6 July and brought by the police to Wat Unalom on the morning of 7 July - see cases number 13-16 above) and in the case of a fifth corpse which was brought to the same pagoda on the same morning, but which could not be identified, the police ordered that cremation of the bodies be conducted without question and without proper cremation permit.
Between 9 and 11 July, according to a variety of reliable corroborating accounts, the bodies of 4 and probably up to 22 soldiers were alleged to have been executed in Pich Nil and burned
Plus many and many more names with lose count that order and executed by Hun Sen and CPP.
Mr Sam Rainsy, you must find justice for the death above and all Cambodian people blood that have been murdred by PhD Dr. Hun Sen from 1970 to today.
Please Mr Sam Rainsy find justice for the death from international court such as American Court, All European Court, Australian Court, Japan Court...Don't let criminal like PhD Dr. Hun SEn get away with his crime agianst humanity.
But sir! PhD Dr. Hun Sen murdered a lot of Cambodian citizenship. They are asking for their Justice now.
PhD Dr. Hun Sen is a criminal against Humanity that is a very very great crime in these world communities.
PhD Dr. Hun Sen gives most Cambodia territories to Vietnam such as the treaties 1979 to 1986.
He is not following the peace agreement Paris.
He has been murdered a lot of Cambodian people such K5. 1997 coup,...plus son and so on with heap of Cambodian people blood on his and his families hands. They are criminal against humanity.
Mr Sam Rainsy doesn't kill Cambodian people like PhD Dr. Hun Sen does every day.
Mr Sam Rainsy doesn't give Cambodia lands, sea, and islands to Vietnam as PhD Dr. Hun Sen does.
Mr Sam Rainsy doesn't billionaires like PhD Dr. Hun Sen. where does they get the money from if we all just rise up from war with empty hands 1979 as PhD. Dr. Hun Sen speech.
Mr Sam Rainsy doesn't make Cambodian people suffer today but PhD Dr. Hun Sen does.
PhD Dr. Hun Sen committed heap of crime so far.
It is time Mr. Sam Rainsy must bring justice to the Cambodian people.
this grandpa has very young wife.
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