Recent scandals over oil, gas and mining payments suggest a degree of transparency by a government firmly under suspicion
Photo by: Pha Lina
Sok An signs an exploration agreement with Japan’s JOGMEC on May 4 in Phnom Penh.
Sok An signs an exploration agreement with Japan’s JOGMEC on May 4 in Phnom Penh.
Stakeholders in Cambodia have different views as to whether the EITI is the right model."
DURING an otherwise routine presentation on the Cambodian economy on March 17, Ministry of Economy and Finance Director General Hang Chuon Naron chose the very last slide to offer a rare, detailed glimpse of Cambodia’s expanding oil and gas revenues.
The decision has since proven to be both a milestone in Cambodian transparency, and a millstone around the government’s neck.
On one hand, Hang Chuon Naron’s disclosure that the government received US$800,000 in December and $26 million in January for energy “signature bonuses” and a “social fund” represented a new level of state transparency for extractive industry payments in the Kingdom.
Subsequently, however, Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government has faced increasingly difficult questions on where the money came from, how it is being spent and to what degree payments derived from the extractives industry will be opened up for public scrutiny.
The missing $500,000 reportedly paid to the government by the world’s largest iron ore producer BHP Billiton – now the subject of a US securities and exchange commission enquiry – looks to be just the start of a period in which the government has increasingly been asked the question: Where has all this money gone? Read the rest of the article here.
The decision has since proven to be both a milestone in Cambodian transparency, and a millstone around the government’s neck.
On one hand, Hang Chuon Naron’s disclosure that the government received US$800,000 in December and $26 million in January for energy “signature bonuses” and a “social fund” represented a new level of state transparency for extractive industry payments in the Kingdom.
Subsequently, however, Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government has faced increasingly difficult questions on where the money came from, how it is being spent and to what degree payments derived from the extractives industry will be opened up for public scrutiny.
The missing $500,000 reportedly paid to the government by the world’s largest iron ore producer BHP Billiton – now the subject of a US securities and exchange commission enquiry – looks to be just the start of a period in which the government has increasingly been asked the question: Where has all this money gone? Read the rest of the article here.
2 comments:
When the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission prompted an investigation on a suspicion of wrong doing, it must be obvious that the suspicious matter turn into a guilty matter. I am making a presumption of guilt to an alleged matter. I am a Cambodian, it is very perplexed to me that to this date, these officials gov't continue to sabotage our country [to me when you never get tire of and continued to steal from your own people time after time, you are sabotaging your own country and people that you are governing], As a human being, sometime your consciousness should kick in, and sporadically should look at the mirror and say to yourself, I must do the right thing for the sake of my country and my people, most of us will make mistakes in life, but you must learn from mistakes for the better for yourself, your family, and more importantly for your country and your people. Most of you, the gov't officials have children and grand-children, you must govern the country that heading to prosperity, literacy, freedom, and security for our people for many generation to come. Our country and people's faith is in your hand.
Of course the Cambodian government, especially Hun Sen and Sok An, is guilty. Now the money paid by foreign investors to the Cambodian government went missing or are unaccounted for. The money, for sure, have been pocketed by Hun Sen and Sok An for sure.
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