The Finance Ministry deflected questions about a spike in the cost of “public finance management” from $13 million to $671 million, which an asterisk on a ministry document appears to show now incorporates debt repayments.
The Finance Ministry has been given a sixfold increase in its budget this year that was explained broadly in state documents as a reallocation of unclassified spending, raising concerns over a lack of transparency in national expenditures.
The Grassroots Democratic Party has promised to cut down the number of ministries and bureaucrats to cut costs in a new policy document released ahead of the commune elections.
A policy of “using palm leaves to package palm sugar” will help the government save costs amid a decline in revenues due to Covid-19 — or, in other words, using available resources like swapping state land with investors to support needs like road-building, an official said.
The government is preparing to set aside up to $2 billion in reserves to respond to the economic fallout of the Covid-19 global outbreak, Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Tuesday.
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