Lawmakers Seek Ways to Better Manage Nation’s Money

Transparency and corruption still exist in the national budget process, but that is something parliamentarians say they want to change.

Dozens of National Assembly members gathered Tuesday at a workshop aimed at arming them to combat unbalanced budgets and to create more transparency in the budget allocation process, something international donors continually point to as an ongoing problem in Cambodia.

“This is an important first step in ensuring transparency, ac­countability and control of expenditures as allocated by the state budget,” said National Assembly President Prince Norodom Ran­ariddh, who opened the workshop.

The country’s front-line ministries, especially in the social sectors such as health and education, constantly call for more money.

The money they eventually re­ceive, officials say, is but a fraction of what they are prom­ised in the budget. Oftentimes, money is siphoned off, bit by bit, as it passes through too many hands with no accountability.

What’s more, Prince Ranariddh said, the government is too slow in allocating the money it promises, and officials will have to do a better job getting the money from the National Bank and into the hands of institutions that need it.

The prince canceled legislative meetings for the day so that lawmakers could attend the workshop, which was held in cooperation with the Assembly Com­mission on Finance and Banking and the Konrad Adenauer Foun­dation.

“We understand the need for strict spending controls,” Prince Ranariddh said.

“But we operate in an environment characterized by severe bud­get constraints, shortcomings in financial management skills and frequent lapses in public administration ethics.”

Workshop organizers had hoped to show parliamentarians the necessary processes for balancing the budget.

Currently, the books for the national coffers do not show a balance between income and expenditures, said CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap, Finance Com­mis­sion chairman.

“The state budget and the state auditing has not been done with proper management,” he said. “So the government will have to work harder.”

The National Assembly plans to debate the appointment of both an auditor general and a deputy, who both will be professionals and “operate independently of par­tisan politics,” Prince Ran­ariddh said.

Opposition parliamentarian Son Chhay criticized the lack of an independent auditor.

“The state budget has no sup­ervision,” he said, calling the current spending method “anarchy.”