One-Party Parliament Effortlessly Passes $3.56 Billion Budget
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 lawmakers of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s long-ruling CPP also voted unanimously to create a new ministry for running the country’s army of civil servants, the Ministry of Public Function, and to split the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy into the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Ministry of Industry and Handicrafts. … Newly appointed Finance Minister Aun Porn Moniroth told the Assembly that the government would raise extra revenue not by raising fees or taxes but by collecting more taxes from those who should already be paying into state coffers. … The opposition CNRP is refusing to take its seats at the Assembly until it settles its dispute with the CPP over July’s national election, which it claims the CPP won through voter irregularities. Citing various laws and articles in the Constitution, the opposition also claims that the Assembly has no legal standing until its 55 lawmakers take their seats in parliament, a position the CPP rejects. … The CNRP has also criticized the government’s decision to split the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy as a move that would only serve to fatten an already bloated civil service. …
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/one-party-parliament-effortlessly-passes-3-56-billion-budget-46913/
