Hong Tha, the head of the Ministry of Finance's Tax Department was publicly

fired by Prime Minister Hun Sen at a seminar on good governance on Dec

14.

The PM asked Tha to stand up in front of the nation's ministers and

governors and then said the tax chief's "saliva is not salty," a reference to

his perceived inability to control his subordinates. Hun Sen accused tax

collectors of being corrupt and said that tax revenues were too low, noting that

they made up only 7.5 percent of the government's budget.

"The pigeon, if

it is on the temple roof for a long time, it shits on the lord. You are a lord,

I take you to stay at the other place to let you look and check on the pigeon

from the top," Hun Sen said. Tha will be moved to a new position at the Council

of Ministers