After CPP Reshuffle, Sok An’s Fiefdom Trimmed
Deputy Prime Minister Sok An has a stunning portfolio of positions within the CPP government. On Monday, CPP lawmakers once again appointed Mr. An as the Cabinet Minister for Prime Minister Hun Sen. He is also the chairman of the state-controlled Cambodian National Petroleum Authority and the Apsara Authority, which oversees the Angkor Archaeological Park, along with posts as the chief of the Khmer Rouge tribunal, the Royal Academy and the State Investment Board of Rubber Enterprise. But in the wake of July’s national election, a number of government bodies under the control of Mr. An have been dissolved. … During a six-hour address to his Cabinet on Wednesday, Mr. Hun Sen announced that the Supreme Council on State Reform (SCSR), a body overseen by Mr. An in his capacity as Cabinet Minister, would be dissolved. The powerful SCSR was in charge of four sub-councils mediating reform in financial policy and within the judiciary, military and public administration. The Accreditation Committee of Cambodia, another body controlled by Mr. An that oversees higher education institutions in the country, will also be dissolved, Mr. Hun Sen announced. The powers once under the councils will either be absorbed by relevant ministries or the newly-created Ministry of Public Functions, which will be headed by Pich Bunthin, a long-time secretary of state at the State Secretariat of Public Functions. The Secretariat of Public Functions, which was also under the control of Mr. An, no longer exists due to the creation of the new ministry. … The National Petroleum Authority, which was created in 1998 as a separate body from the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, has yet to successfully lead a company through to extraction process despite promises from Mr. An in July 2010 that oil would be flowing in Cambodia by the end of 2012. Work at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, where Mr. Sok An has taken the lead on behalf of the government as the chairman of a taskforce, has been slowed by two separate labor strikes of national staff this year due to the government’s failure to meet its financial obligations to the court. The Apsara Authority, of which Mr. An is chairman, controls Cambodia’s most lucrative tourist destination, but it has recently seen its offices and thousands of staff moved 16 km outside of Siem Reap City this month after it swapped complexes with the Siem Reap municipality, which had its former offices sold off in a controversial government land swap in 2010. In March, Mr. Hun Sen overturned a letter Mr. An had signed allowing Leo Beer founder Cheam Phen to take more than 350 hectares of contested land in Preah Sihanouk province. Changes made to Mr. Hun Sen’s Cabinet should not be viewed as demotions, said CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap, who has been reappointed as the head of the National Assembly’s banking and finance committee. …
Kuch Naren and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/after-cpp-reshuffle-sok-ans-fiefdom-trimmed-43665/
