Hun Sen Rejects World Bank Money After Wait

Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday that he was canceling a major World Bank-backed pilot project to build a village for the disabled in Kompong Cham pro­vince’s Memot district be­cause the government had been waiting too long for it to materialize.

In his nationally broadcast speech, Hun Sen said that the land set aside for the project should be used for a social land concession and that he had raised money to build a village for the disabled himself.

“We stopped the project,” Hun Sen said. “Do not wait for money that is in someone else’s pockets,” he added.

Hun Sen also claimed that the World Bank wasted too much money for such projects on consultants’ fees.

“If [the Bank] give 100 percent and then take away 80 percent [for consultants], we should not accept it,” he said.

The World Bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Hun Sen said that by April 2008, 240 families of amputees would be moved into a house each at the Memot district site and land would also be provided for schools, hospitals, pagodas and markets.

In the same speech, Hun Sen ordered the Cambodia Mine Action Center to prioritize clearing mines for social land concessions so that land could be distributed to people suffering disabilities.

He also instructed provincial governors to identify vacant land to be used for such concessions, stipulating that the disabled should be given priority.

Hun Sen also claimed that the government has already given 10,000 hectares of land for social land concessions in Dambe and Tbong Khmum districts in Kom­pong Cham.

Yi Yaun, secretary of state at the Social Affairs Ministry, said his ministry is currently preparing the land and construction details for the Memot district project.

He said the Social Affairs Ministry would assess the people applying for the houses in the proposed village to find those most in need.

“We are working on the project but we have not given out any land yet,” he said.

SRP lawmaker Son Chhay expressed doubt over the feasibility of the project.

A better approach to distributing land cleared of landmines would be to give it to people who need land in general, disabled or not, Son Chhay said.

He also warned against ghettoizing those with physical disabilities.

“[People with disabilities] don’t want to live in a center,” Son Chhay said. “They want to live with their families.”

Hun Sen also said in his speech that the government provided $800,000 in 2006 and $1.2 million in 2007 for land mine clearance activities. He said that in 2008, the government would assess the need for further funding.

 

 

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