Pols called on to reveal their assets
assets “in order to demonstrate their integrity and commitment against corruption”.
Kuy’s email also claimed that high-profile CNRP figures Son Chhay and Prince Sisowath Thomico both agreed to a meeting, then abruptly cancelled.
In 2015, Chhay, a senior CNRP lawmaker, expressed a willingness to publicly disclose his assets in response to a similar AC call for transparency, a position he maintained yesterday despite having so far failed to do so.
“The matter of declaring is not the problem,” Chhay told the Post, maintaining he had “nothing to hide”.
“As the opposition, we are not in a position to take bribes or make money,” he said.
“We have to understand this organisation a bit more,” Chhay said, adding he cancelled his meeting with Kuy only after being surprised to find members of the press present.
Chhay said he was open to trying to meet with the organisation again, on the condition it was done privately.
When reached via email yesterday, Rainsy did not directly answer whether he would publish his financial information, but did send the Post a list of assets totalling $420,000.
“No problem with transpar- ency as far as I’m concerned,” Rainsy said, whose list included a home in Cambodia, the property on which it sits, and a car. He explained that his assets in France were acquired before his return to Cambodia in 1992.
CNRP spokesmanYim Sovann yesterday said that it was part of his party’s official platform to “make an amendment requiring public declaration” of financial assets for public officials.
Despite this, Sovann said public declarations were currently “an individual decision”, and refused to answer whether he himself would declare.
CPP mouthpiece Sous Yara similarly said that the existing law allows CPP officials to make their own decision.
When asked directly if the CPP believed the law should be amended to require public disclosure, Yara said “it’s not in our agenda”.
A Post investigation in 2015 revealed high-ranking current and former government officials on three-figure salaries living in mansions valued at more than $10 million, prompting accusations of corruption and hidden assets at the time.
Preap Kol, executive director of Transparency International Cambodia, said his group would like to see public asset declarations required by law.
“The best thing would be for t he gover nment to a mend t he Anti-Corruption Law to require asset declaration to be public,” Kol said, adding that the families of public officials should be held to the same standards.
“This would ensure that the assets they have earned come from legal sources . . . and not from corruption,” Kol added.
As for the sealed financial disclosures sitting in ACU headquarters, Kol was dismissive. “If asset declaration is done secretly, it’s not a declaration”.
As the opposition, we are not in a position to take bribes or make money