A government spokesman yesterday accused opposition deputy leader Kem Sokha of not doing his job properly after the politician claimed the government was bleeding more than $400 million in possible revenue per year due to corruption.

“He should be careful about what he says in public, he could be [accused] of offending the government,” Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said in response to claims made by Sokha in a speech to supporters in Kandal on Sunday. “He’s in a position [first deputy president] in the National Assembly. He should be more civilised than speaking on the street.… What he said, he should raise in the National Assembly.”

Sokha was explaining his party’s decision to boycott the assembly’s Friday vote on the 2015 national budget when he claimed that hundreds of millions of dollars that should be going into government coffers were being lost from casinos, land concessions, Angkor temple ticketing and oil companies.