Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday ordered the National Olympic Committee to account for its expenditures during the 2005 Southeast Asian Games, accusing the body, which is headed by Prince Norodom Ranariddh, of excessive spending during the event.
Hun Sen accused the entourage that accompanied the Cambodian athletes to the Philippines of flying first-class and staying in five-star hotels. The entourage, whose members he did not name, outnumbered the actual sportsmen, Hun Sen said.
The prime minister also announced that he has cancelled Cambodia’s plans to host the SEA Games in 2011, and will no longer fund the national committee.
“I am disappointed that there were fewer athletes than people accompanying [them to Manila],” Hun Sen said at a graduation ceremony at the National Institute of Education in Phnom Penh.
“I cannot accept it,” he said. “Donors, who gave money to the National Olympic Committee, asked me because they are suspicious about the expenditures.”
Hun Sen said he has asked the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport to establish how much of $25,000 provided by the ministry for the trip was spent, and that the Olympic committee must report back to him on some $1 million that he had raised for it. “Where is the money? How much did they spend?” he demanded.
As president of the committee, Prince Ranariddh attended the Manila SEA Games, which were held in late November and early December, along with Prince Norodom Chakrapong and Funcinpec Senator Mech Somaly.
Meas Sarin, the committee’s secretary-general, said he did not know how much money Prince Ranariddh spent. “Prince Norodom Ranariddh controlled the money,” he said.
Prince Chakrapong said Prince Ranariddh is working out the expenditures and will forward the information to Hun Sen.
Pok Than, Funcinpec secretary of state at the Ministry of Education, said Prince Ranariddh always orders his staff to keep records of his spending.
Warning Finance Minister Keat Chhon that he could be fired if his ministry provides any money to the committee, Hun Sen said that he has informed the secretary-general of the SEA Games that the 2011 event will not be held in Cambodia. “We should not use our limited resources for what is not necessary. We can wait until 2020 or 2030, it is not too late,” he said.
He also weighed in on the decision to replace the national football team with Khemara, the team Prince Ranariddh supports, at the last minute to represent Cambodia at the SEA games.
“[They] caused trouble. The national team they didn’t allow to play, but they allowed the non-national team,” he said of Khemara.
Khek Ravy, president of the Cambodian Football Federation and a relative of Prince Ranariddh, said he was not disappointed by the cancellation, as building a new national stadium for the 2011 games would have been expensive. “It would have affected the national budget,” Khek Ravy said.
