Deputy Prime Minister and co-Minister of Interior Sar Kheng praised New Hope Co Ltd, an obscure company hired to build the new headquarters for the Ministry of National Assembly and Senate Relations and Inspections, at a ground-breaking ceremony on Wednesday.
“I would like to admire this company that has spent a lot of resources to invest with the government to build this new building,” Sar Kheng said in a speech at the site, which, until now, has been a rare public park in Phnom Penh’s Tonle Bassac commune.
New Hope representatives and government officials have given little information about the company, which is registered at the Ministry of Commerce under a nonexistent address and does not seem to have working offices. They have also given few details about the terms of the company’s contract, though officials maintain a proper bidding process took place.
Men Sam An, Minister of the Ministry of National Assembly and Senate Relations and Inspection, said that Prime Minister Hun Sen had agreed and approved the New Hope company to build the new ministry.
“The great gesture of Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen is priceless gratitude,” she said at the ceremony.
Earlier this month, Huot Hak, the director of the ministry’s personnel and administration department had said the company agreed to shoulder the building’s cost in exchange for half of the land in the centrally-located site near Phnom Penh’s Hun Sen park.
While officials at the ceremony did not disclose how much construction will cost, Men Sam An had earlier said it would cost $1 million dollars.
As the ceremony took place, residents looked on from the windows of the decrepit housing complex that overlooks the construction site that was recently their green space.
They have expressed fears that their homes will be earmarked for removal next.
