Prime Minister Hun Sen’s middle son, Hun Manith, has been added to the Cambodian People’s Party’s “monitoring committee”, a body that works to ensure party officials are doing their jobs correctly, according to ruling party spokesman Sok Eysan.

Eysan said the appointment was made official during the December 16-17 central committee congress in Phnom Penh, with Manith filling a place made vacant by party heavyweight Say Phuthong, who died in June and had served as the committee’s chairman.

Yet Manith, who is also the head of the Defence Ministry’s intelligence department, has not replaced Phuthong as the chairman, Eysan said, with Senate first vice president Nai Pena taking that role.

“There are nine members – there is Nai Pena, who is vice president of the Senate, as the head of the committee, and then eight other members including [Defence Ministry secretary of state] Chay Sang Yun and, secondly, Hun Manith,” Eysan explained.

The spokesman said the committee was charged with ensuring party officials are serving in their roles to help the party and the people, and had the power to discipline members who do wrong.

“The monitoring committee checks not only the middle-level and the party at the local level, but [the party] from the bottom to the top,” he said.

“Punishment is based on the scale of the mistake and includes scolding, educating . . . and – the most serious – firing them from the party.”