Prime Minister Hun Sen has warned he will get tough against village, commune and district authorities if they register relatives who are not poor for the cash handout programme the government implemented to help vulnerable families during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said to guarantee transparency and integrity in delivering the cash handouts, he had issued a strict order to the authorities at all levels to perform their work properly and with the utmost consistency.

To ensure poor people experiencing real difficulties get government assistance, a working group had updated the registry of poor and vulnerable people, he said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

“I will take tougher action and will not forgive them [authorities] if any irregularities are found in any village, commune, or district. [Local authorities] have to avoid colluding with their relatives who are not poor to get this cash handout,” the post said.

The prime minister stressed that the work would completely depend on local authorities, including village chiefs and commune and district councils.

Hun Sen launched the cash handout programme on June 24 to assist poor and vulnerable citizens who have been affected by the pandemic.

He said more than 560,000 social security cards classified citizens as Levels 1 or 2 (on a scale of poverty).

The government has to pay 100 billion riel ($25 million) per month to assist them.

Ministry of Planning spokesperson Nop Kornavuth could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Advocacy and Policy Institute (API) director Lam Socheat expressed hope that the procedure to update poor people would not be influenced by political trends.

He said Hun Sen’s remarks highlighted the resolve of the national government. He urged officials to identify real poor people and give them cash assistance to avoid criticism.

If money was diverted from poor people who needed it, he said they might resort to protests later.

“To avoid protests, criticism and complaints, we must follow the correct procedure,” he said.

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