Acu to Unseal Sokha's Asset Records

The Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) is taking action on a corruption complaint against opposition leader Kem Sokha for allegedly promising property and cash to purported mistresses in leaked audio recordings, the body's director said yesterday, after declaring experts had verified the tapes as genuine.

ACU President Om Yentieng spoke following a three-hour meeting at the unit's headquarters.

During the press conference, it emerged that between 30 and 40 ACU officials had been assigned to work day and night to confirm it was the Cambodian National Rescue Party acting president's voice on the 34 tapes, released via social media earlier this month.

Yentieng said the verification gave him grounds to unseal Sokha's confidential declaration of assets - an extremely rare occurrence - and investigate the lawmaker's alleged pledge to provide $4,000 for one mistress and a two-bedroom house for another.

Even if the house that he bought for [his mistress] is declared in his wealth declaration, where did he get the money from? This is the point that requires investigation, Yentieng said.

Who has the authority to open the envelope of wealth declaration? It's me, Om Yentieng.

Yentieng said Sokha was being probed under Article 36 of the Anti-Corruption Code, concerning illicit enrichment, defined as an unexplainable increase in an individual's wealth compared with their legal income.

Under the law, asset declarations - required by lawmakers, high-ranking public officials and military officers every two years - are kept confidential unless the ACU president deems it necessary for an investigation.

Sokha has lodged declarations in 2011, 2013 and 2015. Despite repeated calls for transparency, rarely, if ever, has the ACU unsealed asset declarations, San Chey, director of the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability, noted yesterday.

Government spokesman Phay Siphan, however, maintained at least two policemen's asset declarations had been unsealed during previous corruption proceedings, though could not provide further details of those cases.

Yentieng's swift action in this instance contrasts starkly with years of inaction on pleas to probe the glaring discrepancies between the multimillion-dollar palatial homes and luxury cars of numerous government officials and their modest state salaries.

We hope that the ACU will take the same measures for high-ranking government officials surrounded by hints and suspicions of corruption, Transparency International...