• Society

Ministry Official Accused of Embezzlement

• By Meng Seavmey
• January 12, 2023 11:30 AM

PHNOM PENH – Lay Samnang, a senior Ministry of Social Affairs Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation official,  was arrested on Jan. 10 for alleged embezzlement. The deputy director of the Department of Finance and Supply is accused of misuse of funds from 11 ministry projects.

After 13 months of investigation, the arrest was approved by the president of the Anti-Corruption Unit, Om Yentien, and was carried out by the unit’s judicial police on Jan. 10.

The unit said in a report that Lay Samnang took the money for personal use.

Assigned as the ministry's budget agent, Samnang had the right to transfer the cash from the National Bank of Cambodia to the ministry's account for withdrawal by the ministry cashier.

However, Samnang kept the money and made excuses when asked about it and about supporting documents related to the withdrawal.

At first, after the superior officers’ investigation and Samnang’s confession, the parties made a contract on Dec. 29, 2020 for Samnang to repay the money he had taken from seven projects, worth of 1,055,495,000 riel ($263,750), to the ministry.

However, the ACU later found embezzlement in four more projects involving an extra 493 million riel (approximately $123,329).

These projects were in 2019 and aimed to provide financial support for poor people with disabilities in the community in Svay Rieng, Takeo, Siem Reap, and Oddar Meanchey provinces, as well as for the Special Olympic winners and delegates. 

The seven projects in 2020 included one of the ministry’s dead officials in 2019, for an orphan, for a child’s funeral, for the national medical center in the second quarter, and for the Battambang provincial Center of Hope and Gendarmerie in the second quarter, and for the National Borey for Infants and Children.

The ACU also claimed to have found another illegal act which was money laundering from corruption.

So far, Samnang has given around 684,939,160 riel (approximately $166,351), and still has to pay 836,875,000 riel (approximately $203,252). The spokesperson said the remainder would be calculated based on Samnang’s properties and the court’s decision.

Both Lay Samnang and related documents of his case were transferred to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Jan. 11 for the rest of the procedures, unit spokesman Soy Chanvichet said.