Assembly Passes Draft Law on 2005 Spending

The National Assembly unanimously approved a draft law Mon­day detailing the government’s ex­penditures and revenue for 2005.

According to the draft law, the government collected more mon­ey than it spent in 2005, but ministries labeled as priorities by the government—such as Health, Education and Rural Develop­ment—still failed to spend the money allocated to them.

Total government expenditures came in at over $878 million—$100 million more than the As­sembly had approved, but still well short of $946 million the state earned in revenue.

Numerous institutions overspent in 2005 according to the draft law, including the Council of Ministers, the ministries of In­terior and Fo­reign Affairs and the Royal Palace. The National Elec­tion Committee spent more than twice what it was allocated.

By contrast the priority ministries of Health, Education and Ru­ral De­ve­lop­ment only spent 94, 95.6 and 89.9 percent of their re­spective budgets.

According to a July 6 statement by Prime Minister Hun Sen that was presented at Monday’s de­bate, the surplus funds earned by the state in 2005 were placed in a government reserve fund for contingency spending.

The prime minister also wrote that incidents of overspending were largely the re­sult of civil servant salary in­creases.

The opposition remained largely silent during the day’s debate, only occasionally challenging listed expenditures.

Speaking to reporters after the debate, SRP lawmaker Ho Vann said he supported the law despite reservations because nothing could be done to change events nearly two years past.

“The money is already spent,” he said.

SRP lawmaker Sok Soty pointed out that the budget law indicated government revenue derived from tourism had not kept pace with the increasing number of tourists entering the country. He claimed this demonstrated that the Mini­stry of Finance was lax in revenue collecting duties.

Finance Ministry Secretary of State Ouk Rabun dismissed the lawmaker’s remarks.

“You only talk about what you don’t like,” he said. “All revenue was collected very effectively. It is remarkable.”