Hun Sen’s Cabinet Approves $3.5B Draft Budget
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s new Cabinet on Friday approved a 2014 draft budget of $3.5 billion, a 13 percent increase over this year’s budget, but gave no details as to how the money would be spent. The CPP also said it will go ahead with a National Assembly vote to ratify the draft budget by the end of the year regardless of whether the opposition’s 55 elected members of parliament take their seats or not. … The Council of Ministers, which announced Friday’s approval of the draft budget, offered no details on how the budget would be divided or how the government planned to pay for the increase. … The opposition has faulted past budgets for allocating too much money to security spending at the expense of health, education and rural development, and for taking on too much foreign debt. Of the $3.1 billion approved for 2013, some $400 million—about 13 percent of the total budget, and 17 percent more than the year before—went to defense and security. Education and health received a paltry $280 million and $225 million, respectively. … CNRP spokesman Yem Ponhearith said any vote on the budget before the opposition took its seats would render the vote illegitimate. The Constitution says the Assembly must have 120 members, he said. In 2003, the Constitutional Council ruled that simply having 120 candidates elected fulfilled that requirement. The opposition, however, argues that at least 120 of those elected lawmakers have to take their seats. …
Hul Reaksmey and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sens-cabinet-approves-3-5b-draft-budget-45985/
