Budget

With the release of the government’s 2015 draft national budget Thursday, the opposition CNRP, whose 55 lawmakers joined the National Assembly in August, called Cambodia’s budget-drafting process “disgusting and unbelievable” on Friday. The draft 2015 budget calls for $400 million—or about 10.6 percent—more than 2014. ...

Education and health are set to receive large boosts in funding next year, according to the draft budget waiting approval at the National Assembly, which outlines total government spending of $3.75 billion. The draft budget allocates $324 million to the health ministry, up 24.7 per ...

Pailin province’s ex-governor and provincial council president Y Chhien yesterday denied corruption allegations against him, describing the claims as politically motivated. The two opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party members on the nine-seat provincial council accused Chhien in mid-October of misusing $400,000 in state funds and exploiting ...

The Cambodian government on Friday approved around 3.92 billion U.S. dollars for the country’ s expenditure in 2015, up 10.8 percent year-on-year, according to a press statement released after a weekly cabinet meeting. ...

Senior opposition lawmaker Son Chhay has formally requested that the entire staff list of the National Assembly’s more than 1,000-strong secretariat be turned over to him for investigation as part of a bid to root out “ghost” workers and nepotistic appointments. As part of his one-man ...

Government officials remained mum Thursday over a new sub-decree purporting to formalize monthly expenditures of senior government officials while the opposition and civil society groups said the regulation was a facade meant to conceal the real amount of money being made by CPP officials. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen is set for a monthly salary hike of more than $900 as part of sweeping changes to senior government and high-ranking civil servant bonuses, according to a new sub-decree. The document, dated October 13 and obtained by the Post yesterday, states that ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Thursday that the country needs about 11 billion U.S. dollars for public investment to support the implementation of the government’s priorities from 2013 to 2018. ...

Teachers will receive their base salaries and additional benefits in a single package starting later this month, in an effort to simplify the payment process and avoid confusion, Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron said Wednesday. Health, risk and rural bonuses will all be folded into teachers’ ...

A group of NGOs yesterday called for more detailed information on national budgets to be made public before their approval, maintaining that the public had a right to know about and comment on the expenditures that would ultimately affect their day-to-day lives. Tek Vannara, director of ...

Cambodia must significantly increase teachers’ salaries and import the best teacher trainers from abroad in order to combat a continuously widening gap between the skills employers are looking for and those the country’s graduates are able to provide, a new report says. Facing the worst student-teacher ...

The Council of Ministers on Friday approved a new five-year National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) – the guiding policy document used by the government – requiring an estimated $26.58 billion in spending and investment, or more than $5.3 billion a year, until 2018. The plan ...

More than five years after the close of the 2008 fiscal year, the National Audit Authority (NAA) on Thursday released its audit into the government’s financial management in 2008. The 38-page report is only the third such audit carried out since the department opened in 2000 ...

Without more efforts to punish traffic violators, the government is all but certain to miss its 2020 goal of cutting traffic deaths by 20 percent and drunk driving deaths by 50 percent, road safety experts said at a forum Tuesday. There were 1,910 deaths due to ...

Nhiek Bunchay, Secretary General of FUNCINPEC Party said yesterday that the royalist Party would pay the seven month salaries it owed to its staff before the coming Chinese New Year. FUNCINPEC Secretary General Nhiek Bun Chhay also said that the long delay of the payment was ...

CPP lawmakers including Prime Minister Hun Sen unanimously voted Friday for their party members, Suy Sem and Cham Prasidh, to become heads of the newly created Ministry of Mines and Energy, and the Ministry of Industry and Handicrafts, respectively. The 67 ruling-party parliamentarians present also approved ...

The amount of money to be allocated to commune-, district- and province-level governments is slated to rise next year in accordance with the government’s long-gestating attempts at decentralising its power. Provincial- and capital-level funding will rise to about 640.8 billion riel, with 237.2 billion riel ...

Eleven senators supporting the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party say they will not take part in a Senate session on Thursday scheduled to debate the 2014 budget. Opposition senators say they will not endorse a budget that did not go through proper parliamentary procedure and ...

The Finance Ministry on Wednesday defended itself against recent reports that some 45 percent of the government’s $3.4 billion draft budget for 2014 remains unallocated, issuing a statement explaining that the money will pay for loans, subsidies and other vital expenses. According to the statement, ...

Transparency watchdogs have warned that $1.5 billion of unallocated funds in next year’s budget will only encourage nepotism and embezzlement. The Draft Budget Law was approved at the National Assembly on Tuesday in a unanimous vote of 66 ruling Cambodian People’s Party MPs. The $3.4 billion ...

Sixty-six National Assembly members of the ruling CPP on Tuesday unanimously approved Cambodia’s $3.56 billion draft budget for 2014 without debate and without even the hint of an opposition, whose 55 lawmakers-elect are boycotting parliament in protest over July’s still-disputed national election result. The ruling party ...

The government will spend a total of $13.7 million in the next three years to build new appeal courts outside of Phnom Penh along with free accommodation for judges and prosecutors across the country, according to the draft budget law for 2014, which is scheduled ...

The government plans to raise $3.51 billion in state revenue in 2014 in order to finance a $3.4 billion draft budget, an increase of about 14.5 percent compared to the previous year, when the government raised $2.98 billion in revenue, according to a draft of ...

Government officials were still tight-lipped about the 2014 draft budget yesterday, though some details did continue to trickle out, such as the announcement of a sizeable increase in national defence spending. Cambodian People’s Party lawmaker and banking and finance committee member Cheam Yeap said yesterday that ...