Minister of Health Mam Bunheng has been called to appear in parliament over his alleged inaction in response to the Global Fund scandal and other allegations of corruption in the health sector, an opposition lawmaker has said.
The request for Bunheng to appear before the National Assembly on Friday was made by Ho Vann, a lawmaker who chairs parliament’s anti-corruption commission.
Ho Sothy, chief of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet, and Or Vandin, spokeswoman for the Health Ministry, said they had not received the request as of yesterday afternoon.
“The Global Fund found Ministry of Health officers has used the granted aid in a network of corruption. So far no legal measures have been taken. I want to know what the minister of health is doing about that,” Vann said.
A November 2013 investigation found, among other things, that two senior Ministry of Health officials had defrauded the multibillion-dollar fund out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in return for allocating more than $11.7 million in contracts to two foreign firms who allegedly bribed them to secure the contracts.
