The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications will reportedly receive an unusually small share of the revenue from an Internet-based overseas-calling venture with AZ, a privately owned Cambodian company.
Opposition parliamentarian Son Chhay said Thursday that MPTC officials had told him the ministry will get only 30 percent of the new gateway’s proceeds, even though four other companies that wanted the contract were willing to give the ministry 51 percent.
In a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen, Son Chhay asked why the government would give away contracts that could benefit the state budget immensely if bid upon by competing companies. He has received no reply.
Royal Telecam International, the operator of Cambodia’s privately run international-calling gateway commercially known as Tele2, also has voiced displeasure to Hun Sen about the MPTC’s new partnership, saying it violates RTI’s exclusive 25-year contract and sends “disturbing signals” to potential foreign investors.
The MPTC receives 51 percent of RTI’s revenue, but that has not always been the case.
A review of RTI’s International Gateway II contract stated that in 2001 the MPTC and its other partner in the deal, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, decided 10 percent “did not reflect accurately the fair share of the Gross revenue due to the MPTC and MEF.” Their share jumped to 51 percent, according to the document signed by Minister of Posts and Telecommunications So Khun and Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon, dated Dec 20, 2001.
A letter from MPTC employees to Hun Sen written before that amendment charged So Khun with a number of illegal activities, including taking payments from Kith Mieng, chairman of the Royal Group, one of RTI’s parent companies.
“The problem is about the technical assistance that MobiTel did not provide, but we called them and explained,” said So Khun on Thursday. “This is not an international gateway.”
Son Chhay said So Khun recently told him he had quit accepting Kith Mieng’s $2,500-a-month payments several months ago. Son Chhay alleged that the AZ partnership will supplement So Khun’s income in the same way.
The document reviewing the MPTC-RTI contract also catalogs a number of contract breaches by RTI. It accuses the company of theft, committed through both the falsification of accounts and the illegal re-routing of phone calls, a scheme that diverted calls dialed through the government-run 001 overseas provider to RTI’s 007 line. The document concludes by proclaiming the right of the MPTC to revoke RTI’s contract for such trespasses.
Son Chhay, who formerly chaired the legislative committee on telecommunications, says the MPTC purposely leaked that document to silence RTI’s complaints about AZ. “They are saying, ‘Look at the mess you made,’” he said.
AZ’s chairman Ung Bun Hoav could not be reached for comment, and one of his employees refused to speak to a reporter.
The government has also given run of the Route 4 toll booth to AZ without considering bids from other contractors, Son Chhay said.
Nhem Vanthorn, director of the Khmer Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Organization and president of the newly founded Commission of Transparency for Cambodia, said the latter organization will likely investigate the business practices of AZ in late October.
