COMPARE THE HOUSE OF HUN SEN

HUNDREDS of thousands of dollars of Australian aid is wasted on expatriate salaries and the running costs of big Cambodian-based international aid groups, hindering assistance to 40,000 landmine victims in the war-battered country. A country director for an international charity receives a $250,000 package that includes a spacious villa, four-wheel-drive and schooling perks. Up to 80 per cent of aid paid to international aid organisations based in Cambodia goes straight out again in the form of high expatriate salary packages and running costs, said Chris Minko, head of the Cambodian National Volleyball League for the Disabled. He said AusAID's reluctance to directly fund non-Australian aid organisations in Cambodia had created major inefficiencies in the disbursement of funds.

with THAT OF JULIA GILLARD THE AUSTRALIA PM

Cambodian officials pocketed money designated for specific aid programs, the World Bank alleges. Though Prime Minister Hun Sen denied it, the wporld bank and others felt otherwise. Money was being siphoned from funds intended to support a project for the demobilization of about 30,000 soldiers, and the Cambodian government agreed to pay back US$2.8 million after the World Bank threatened to withhold further aid. Since then, the World Bank and the rest of Cambodia's donors have kept a close eye on their aid money. In December 2004, official donors promised to give the nation US$504 million in 2005 if it attempted to eradicate corruption and could show its progress. Hun Sen did nothing.

In June 2006, the Bank again cited corruption and money grafting as the reasons for its withdrawal of funds from three key programs. It cancelled 43 contracts worth US$11.9 million, US$7.6 million of which was earmarked for major projects on infrastructure, water and sanitation, and government bureaucracy. The programs would have provided employment and aid for thousands of impoverished people.

Hun Sen proclaimed innocence, joking to his top officials in public, "If something is found to be wrong, I will cut your throat." He and the government refused to return any money because they refused to confess any corruption. At the same time, however, Sen's officials arrested for embezzlement several local officers in charge of the aid programs but these are the minors in the scams!!!!

But in June 2009 international donors pledged 1.1 billion U.S. dollars in aid for this year, up from last year’s 950 million dollars. In the meantime 1/3 of the population live on the poverty line and life has got no better propped up by the doners.