Corruption! Two Million Dollars Per Month Squandered By Mr. Hun Sen

“Prime Minister Hun Sen has elevated at least 70 ruling party politicians to new titles and ranks within the government in the last few months at a cost to the national budget estimated at $2 million a month.” - Phnom Penh Post

Editorial by Khmerization
Originally posted at http://khmerization.blogspot.com/

About a week ago, I editorialised that Mr. Hun Sen has corruptly squandered the national budget by unnecessarily appointing all opposition defectors who joined the CPP to many high paid government positions. Now it is evident that Mr. Hun Sen has just corruptly squandered public money to the tune of two million dollars per month by promoting 70 of his CPP stooges unnecessarily. Mr. Hun Sen seemed to wrongly think that, as a prime minister of a country, he has the right and can appoint anyone at his own will. Mr. Prime Minister, you are wrong!

In a parliamentary democracy, under a constitution that was written and approved by the constituent assembly of which you were a member, the prime minister is accountable and is answerable to the constitution, to the parliament and to the people. And in a fully democratic country your actions are unconstitutional and are impeachable by parliament.

In 1974? President Richard Nixon was impeached and forced out of office due to a moronic action of one of his party workers who broke into the opposition candidate’s office and stole some documents. In 1975, an Australian prime minister, Mr. Gough Whitlam, was sacked by the Governor-General due to a very ambiguous reason. As of this week an Australian minister is facing the sack after he appointed his friend to a high paid government job. These are just a few examples that have been actioned in a fully democratic country that Mr. Hun Sen should be aware of.

Coming back to the $2 million a month spent on the wages of the 70 newly appointed CPP stooges, it is pure corruption. The $2 million squandered in such a fashion is just a tip of the iceberg. If the opposition is correct, when they claimed that there are thousands of unneeded government advisors, it meant that Mr. Hun Sen has corruptly squandered $30 million a month, or $360 million a year. Coupled with $500 million (World Bank figures) a year lost through corruption, it meant that Cambodia has lost $860 million a year because of official corruption. Considering that the Cambodian economy is a small economy, this amount represented a titanic amount.

So, how Mr. Hun Sen can be stopped? Well, MP Son Chhay has done a small step by strongly reminded Mr. Hun Sen, through his media appeal and letter to the Prime Minister himself, that there will be legal consequences if the prime minister does not right his wrongs.

Another measure would be that the parliament move a motion to censure the prime minister over his actions, request for an audited lists of appointments and audited salaries being spent on those appointments. If his appointments were found to be corruptly unjustified he should be impeached and force out of office. This measure is a wishful thinking and would most definitely fail because all of the CPP parliamentarians, due to their vested interests, will not agree to move such a motion to impeach their prime minister. But such a measure, success or without success, must be tried. If Mr. Hun Sen is allowed to do whatever he wants, without regard for the laws and without anyone putting a stop to it, Cambodia would still be poor as long as Mr. Hun Sen is still the prime minister. Poor Cambodia!

Hun Sen Rejected the Opposition Party’s Request

21 Feb. 2008
By Phan Sophath,
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer to English by Khmerization
http://khmerization.blogspot.com/

Son Chhay: "....we have always reminded times and again that if the Prime Minister continues to violate the laws, and refuse to review all his wrongdoings, in our capacity as members of parliament, we will apply our legal measures.”

Prime Minster Hun Sen has rejected the opposition party’s request on Thursday by declaring that he will still continue to appoint all defectors from various parties who defected to this own party to government positions.

Speaking to hundreds of supporters in Lvea Em district, Mr Hun Sen appealed to other officials from various parties to defect to his Cambodian People’s Party and assured them that they will be appointed to various government positions.

The Prime Minister said in reference to the opposition: “Everything is a problem, it never satisfies you…everything (I’ve done) is wrong. Now, if anyone dare to defect, I will appoint them again. If you are the members of the Steering Committee all of you will be appointed as advisors to the government. You (the opposition) are not more important than the nation. If the government can make good use of them, no problem. This time, it is my right and it is not your right.”

Mr. Hun Sen’s speech was made after the opposition MP, Mr. Son Chhay, appealed to the Prime Minister to stop appointing anymore ministers or secretaries of state immediately. He charged that such appointments are squandering the national budget which can affect the good governance, in violations of the rights of other political parties and are in violations of the nation’s laws.

Mr. Son Chhay said: “Political parties and the government are separate entities. So I would like to remind the Prime Minister that he should not be confused with the administrative structure of the People’s Republic of Kampuchea regime and the administrative governing structure of the present royal government where after 1993 we have a new constitution. That’s why we have always reminded times and again that if the Prime Minister continues to violate the laws, and refuse to review all his wrongdoings, in our capacity as members of parliament, we will apply our legal measures.”

The exchanges in regard to this matter occurred following many defections from the Sam Rainsy Party and the Funcinpec Party to the Cambodian People’s Party and all the defectors have been appointed as advisors to the government or to the Prime Minister himself, with the rank of ministers or secretaries of state of the present government.

According to opposition officials, at present, without providing the exact figures, they estimated that there are thousands of advisors. So they request the government to send the lists of those advisors to the parliament.

Officials from the civil societies have also expressed the same view that the appointments of so many unnecessary advisors will squander the national budget as well as creating political problems.