Cambodian Oil, Mineral Wealth Sold To Corrupt Elites-Watchdog

BANGKOK (AFP)--Cambodia's political elite has captured the country's oil and mineral wealth, putting its economic future at risk while international donors turn a blind eye, an environmental watchdog said Thursday.

London-based Global Witness said impoverished Cambodia has enough natural wealth to wean itself off foreign aid but international donors must do more to ensure the assets are properly managed.

In its new report entitled: "Country for Sale," the group said earnings from oil, gas and minerals were being "jeopardized by high-level corruption, nepotism and patronage" in allocating and managing the assets.

"The same political elite that pillaged the country's timber resources has now gained control of its mineral and petroleum wealth," said Global Witness Campaigns Director, Gavin Hayman.

"Unless this is changed, there is a real risk that the opportunity to lift a whole generation out of poverty will be squandered," he added.

The Cambodian government banned a previous damning report published by Global Witness on Cambodia's forests in June 2007, which claimed the same elites were illegally logging the nation's forests.

In its new report the group said oil, gas and mineral assets had been parceled out by a small number of powerbrokers surrounding Prime Minister Hun Sen and other senior officials.

It also suggested that millions of dollars paid by oil and mining companies to secure access to the resources might be missing from national accounts.

"Companies need to come clean on what they have paid to the government to secure access to these natural resources, or risk becoming complicit in a corrupt system," Hayman said.

So far more than 75 companies are working in Cambodia's extractive sectors, the report said, including some internationally known operators such as Chevron Corp. (CVX) and BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP).

Last month international donors pledged nearly $1 billion in development aid to Cambodia, their most generous aid package ever to the impoverished Southeast Asian nation.

But Global Witness said the agreements didn't go far enough in securing new governance measures for natural resources.

Cambodia expects to begin oil production of its offshore fields in 2011, following the discovery of oil in 2005 by Chevron.

The kingdom is sitting on an estimated hundreds of millions of barrels of crude - and three times as much natural gas - but it remains unclear how much of the black gold can actually be recovered.