The government on Friday revealed the ministers who will be moving in a cabinet reshuffle announced this week by Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has said the CPP-controlled National Assembly will vote on the changes on April 4.
Hor Namhong, the long-serving foreign minister, will retire and be replaced by Prak Sokhon, the current posts and telecommunications minister, while Sun Chanthol, the commerce minister, will oversee the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation.
A total of eight ministerial changes have been put forward in the proposed shakeup, submitted to parliament on Wednesday and posted to the Facebook page of Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan on Friday morning.
Mr. Siphan could not be reached to confirm the authenticity of the letter, but regularly releases official government documents via Facebook, and the proposal is signed and stamped by the prime minister.
Mr. Chanthol will be replaced as head of the Commerce Ministry by Pan Sorasok, a secretary of state at the ministry. Tram Iv Tek, the outgoing transport minister, will take Mr. Sokhon’s job at the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry.
Other top-level changes are coming at the ministries of land management, agriculture, rural affairs and religion. Im Chhun Lim, the land management minister, is being replaced by Chea Sophara, who in turn will be replaced as rural affairs minister by Ouk Rabun, the outgoing agriculture minister. Veng Sakhon, a secretary of state at the Water Resources Ministry, will take over for Mr. Rabun at the Agriculture Ministry.
Cults and Religion Minister Min Khin will switch positions with Him Chhem, a senior minister in charge of special missions.
Keat Chhon, a deputy prime minister who was the finance minister until 2013, is retiring from Mr. Hun Sen’s administration. Im Suosdey, who headed the National Election Committee until it was overhauled last year, has been appointed as a secretary of state at the Interior Ministry.
A total of 24 changes are laid out in the proposal from Mr. Hun Sen, which is all but certain to be approved by CPP lawmakers when it is put up for a vote in parliament. On Thursday, Mr. Hun Sen said he put together the proposal in private.
“Yesterday, nobody knew that I wrote and stamped and registered the number [of the letter] from home and sent it straight to the National Assembly,” he said during a speech at a graduation ceremony in Phnom Penh, adding that the changes would enhance government efficiency.
The prime minister warned of a cabinet reshuffle late last month. Speaking at the Interior Ministry’s annual meeting, he said some ministers were simply too slow, and recalled instructions he delivered in 2013 for ministers to rid themselves of “disease.”
“[We] gave them several years to take a bath, look in the mirror and clean their bodies. Now is the time to treat the disease,” he said.
