Officials Accused of Corruption Not Guilty: ACU

[geovalin]

Khmer Times/Mom Kunthear

Four high-ranking Senate officials defended themselves yesterday against anonymous accusations filed to the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) over financial irregularities, according to the ACU’s website. The anonymous complaint implicated Tuy Sarin, deputy director of the buildings inventory department and the general department of construction and finance, Chhem Preah Khann, general director of the general administration and finance of the Senate Secretariat, Chhem Sothkun, president of the protocol and international relations department, and Som Vuthearith, president of the staff and finance department of the Senate.

Mr. Sarin was accused of buying electrical appliances for an amount higher than the appliance’s market price. He was also accused of stealing state assets since 2000. Refrigerators and air-conditioners were among the items allegedly purchased. “The electrical material he bought to decorate or repair the Senate office was a decent price in the market. It was not more expensive than the price in the market as mentioned in the accusations,” the ACU’s letter said about Mr. Sarin’s purchases.

It added that the accusation of stealing state material was not true. Mr. Preah Khann was accused of using the national budget to purchase luxury cars for personal use, using state-owned vehicles for personal use, appointing six relatives, children, nephews or nieces to positions in the Senate, ordering offices under Senate control to pay him monthly fees and protecting the names of so-called ghost officials who routinely skipped work.

read more http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/24487/officials-accused-of-corruption-not-guilty--acu/

[Lex Talionis]

It's almost impossible to overstate how atrociously written this article is.

Accused of allowing ghost officials to work outside the Senate? In other words if these ghosts had confined themselves to the Senate chambers everything would've been ok?

And that's just one stinker in a whole litany of "journalistic" offenses.