Airport Sites Not Registered as State Property

The National Audit Authority?s first annual audit since it began reviewing the government?s books in 2002, which was made public Friday, accuses some government and privately-run airports of felling to register important government-owned real estate as state property.

The report, which is based on audits conducted in 2006, reveals that Phnom Penh and Siem Reap international airports as well as domestic airports in Battambang, Ratanakkiri, Mondolkiri, Koh Kong, Stung Treng and Preah Sihanouk provinces are not officially registered as being on state-owned land with a proper title.

?According to observations made in previous years, some ministries and institutions did not issue enough documents on time in order to have a proper land title on the real estate,? the report states.

The report also states: ?[I]n order to manage the state property durably and effectively, every institution using state property shall cooperate with other relevant bodies to urgently issue the title for all state property.?

Din Chantha, deputy director of airport engineering at the State Secretariat for Civil Aviation, said yesterday that the government is aware of the problem but has encountered difficulties.

?The complications surrounding land disputes have slowed the work,? said Mr Chantha. He added that his department has been trying to register eight separate airports with the Ministry of Land Management, all of which are currently in operation. Land titling documents for Koh Kong Airport have already been sent to the Ministry of Land Management but the SSCA has still not had any response, he said.

?Land titling and ownership is quite important for the airports to avoid illegal occupation in the future,? Mr Chantha said. ?The slow pace of the work stems from the sensitivity surrounding land issues in the past?

He explained that a land dispute with more than 170 families in Battambang province, who used to live on the land where the airport now stands, was a highly complicated and controversial affair, though a similar dispute in Koh Kong was easier to address.

The audit report also states that poor administrative capacity among government bodies has caused the state to loose hundreds of hectares of land to villagers through their alleged illegal occupation.

Sourced = The Cambodia Daily