SRP lawmaker Son Chhay has requested the formation of an independent committee to oversee the work of the National Assembly finance and banking commission, which he said currently manages the Assembly budget without sufficient transparency.
In a letter to Assembly President Heng Samrin dated Oct 1 and received Tuesday, Son Chhay asked for the creation of a body to audit expenditures made by the commission, which he said is unlawfully allowed to both manage and audit expenditures.
“No such committee can oversee itself,” he said. “The expenditure is full of corruption. I want to have a transparent measure.”
Heng Samrin responded Oct 1, saying that three separate laws in 1999, 2006 and 2007 grant the power to spend, manage and audit the national budget to the finance and banking commission chairman—currently CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap.
Cheam Yeap said that he acts in compliance with the three existing statutes, and is merely doing his job to oversee the budget.
“Based on the three decisions, I, Cheam Yeap, have complied with the decisions,” he wrote in an Oct 2 letter to Heng Samrin.
He went on to dismiss Son Chhay’s remarks as a politically motivated attempt to defame CPP leaders.
“[He] has alleged other people without foundation, study or justice,” Cheam Yeap wrote.
“Any National Assembly expenditure is [made] under the agreement of the National Assembly president,” Cheam Yeap said Tuesday, adding that only Heng Samrin can rightfully audit the commission.
