Saturday, 5 January 2008

Prime Minister Calls for the State and for the Military to Reduce Fuel Wasting

The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 541
Posted on 5 January 2008.

“Kompong Cham: Samdech Akak Moha Senapadei Dekchor Hun Sen, the Prime Minister of Cambodia, called on 3 January 2008 for military chiefs and for all state institutions to be thrifty when using fuel, reducing the use of fuel in order for the saved resources to be used for the public sector.

“Samdech Prime Minister said this during the inauguration of the Military Region 2 Hospital on the morning of 3 January 2008.

“Samdech Dekchor said that because the price of oil goes up all over the world, the funds requested for the use of fuel by the military is beyond the resources. Therefore, the only choice left is to appeal to the armed forces, including to the leaders of the Ministry of Defense, to military commanders at all levels, to military chiefs and deputy military chiefs, all who use fuel, that they should use fuel within the limits of the allocated budget.

“Moreover, Samdech Dekchor also called for state institutions which use state fuel that they should use fuel economically and not use it for work which is not work for the state, for example, gasoline of state should not be used to go for a private drive on Saturdays or Sundays.

“Samdech Dekchor continued that in 2008 we must be thrifty. If we are not thrifty, we will meet difficulties, because the price of oil is going up world-wide.

“Samdech went on to say that we have to keep the fuel to be used for the public sector, such as for the construction of roads and irrigation systems.

“Samdech Dekchor said that, for example, when his officials follow him going to the same destination, all of them should reduce the number of cars used – until now they used to come one person in one car each, now they should change this and come together in only one car for three or four of them, in order to save fuel. If they can do so, we can reduce the use of cars, instead of ten cars it is better to use only three or four cars.

“Samdech Hun Sen said that even he himself has already started to do it – he has only one car driving in front of his car and one after his car. This is to help to save, for our people.

“Samdech Dekchor Hun Sen expressed the hope that the army will act as a model in saving fuel.
“It is noticed that so far, officials of the Royal Government – both in the civil sector and in the military, always compete with each other for the latest cars, using modern cars which use much gasoline. Furthermore, many officials have even many cars for the use in their families, such as for carrying their children to school, carrying their wives to the market, etc. which all means to use state fuel. The gasoline allocations of some government officials and of some persons in the armed forces, who have monthly gasoline supplies, have also been taken away by their bosses.

“A government official said that the gasoline supply for a ministry per moth is more than 400 liters, but it is still not enough. There must come a reduction of gasoline allocations. The ministers of some ministries use the annual gasoline supplies for the ministry only for themselves for the whole year.”

Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol.16, #4480, 4.1.2008

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