Wednesday, 15 October 2008

US Chargé d’Affairs Encourages the Cambodian Government to Create Laws to Control Income from Oil and to Adopt an Anti-Corruption Law

Posted on 14 October 2008
The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 582

“A US high-ranking diplomatic official in Cambodia expressed concern over the absence of laws to control income from natural gas and of oil in the gulf of Cambodia, for which the government cooperates with a US company. This US diplomat voiced also concerns that Cambodia does not have anti-corruption legislation according to international standards.

“Ms. Piper Campbell, the US Chargé d’Affairs to Cambodia talked to journalists on 12 October 2008, while leading a delegation to visit the third navy vessel of the Untied States which moors in the sea of Cambodia at Sihanoukville, that there is cooperation to explore natural gas and oil with a US company in the gulf of Cambodia. The US government is a country which strongly demands that proper anti-corruption laws should be adopted.

“While the US oil company Chevron comes to invest millions of dollars in Cambodia, this makes the US government worry about the absence of some laws in Cambodia, like anti-corruption laws and laws to control income from the oil industry.

“Ms. Piper Campbell, the US Chargé d’Affairs to Cambodia, added that in the future, there will be a meeting between donor countries and Cambodia, and she will reaffirm the demand for the adoption of anti-corruption legislation. At the same time, donor countries will demand that Cambodia should have proper laws with transparency to control the income from oil.

“Ms. Piper Campbell went on to say that the Cambodian Government does not need to wait for the income from the exploitation of oil and gas, before creating related laws, but those laws must be developed from now on in order to control and encourage Cambodia to become a rule-of-law country and to have effective measures to help develop the national economy through the creation of adequate legislation.

“Ms. Piper Campbell affirmed that the US government had checked each paragraph of the drafts for an anti-corruption law carefully. It would be better if donor countries were allowed to jointly consider the drafts of anti-corruption legislation, so that they could provide ideas for points that they might consider useful or not useful for such draft laws, and it is fundamental that the Cambodian government cares so that the adoption of the anti-corruption law moves ahead.

“Ms. Piper Campbell expects that the anti-corruption draft law will be discussed and adopted by the National Assembly soon, and then will be put into practice. She added that even when an anti-corruption law will have been adopted by the National Assembly, it is necessary that proper legislation monitoring systems will efficiently monitor the law enforcement.

“The US Chargé d’Affairs to Cambodia pointed out that the US government, like other donor countries to Cambodia, is waiting for the adoption of legislation to control income from oil exploitation in the gulf of Cambodia as well as an anti-corruption law. She said that everyone knows the serious impact of corruption, that is why they want to see an anti-corruption law and other laws adopted, because corruption blocks the national economic development.

“As for the exploration to exploit oil, for which the Cambodian government cooperates with the US Chevron company, Mr. Joseph Mussomeli, a former US Ambassador to Cambodia, had voiced his concern over the oil exploitation, and he had encouraged the creation of laws to control the income from natural gas and oil, and he had demanded that the Cambodian government adopts an anti-corruption law that follows international standards.

“The strongman, Hun Sen, the Khmer Prime Minister, had promised the international community, that is the donor countries of Cambodia, to send the draft of an anti-corruption law to the National Assembly to be adopted. However, since more than ten years already, such anti-corruption legislation has not yet been seen. Recently, Hun Sen has again promised to send an anti-corruption draft law to the fourth term National Assembly to be adopted soon, after the adoption of criminal procedures by the National Assembly, because some articles of the anti-corruption law relate to these criminal procedures.”

Moneaksekar Khmer, Vol.15, #3586, 13.10.2008
Newspapers Appearing on the Newsstand:
Monday, 13 October 2008

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