Opposition leaders from western Kazakhstan's oil-producing regions announced they have created an organization called the People's Oil Fund in order to monitor the government's financial activities. The move follows Prime Minister Imanghali Tasmaghambetov's admission earlier this month that President Nursultan Nazarbaev created a secret foreign bank account in 1996 containing some $1 billion that the Kazakh government received from selling a stake in the Tengiz oil field, although he denied that any of the money was for Nazarbaev's personal use. The founders of the People's Oil Fund said they hope to promote transparency in the government and to expose any other secret hoards of public money held by "high-ranking bureaucrats in Astana." The organization called on the government to make earnings from oil and gas projects public while maintaining that only about $300 million of an estimated $4-5 billion in annual revenues go into the national budget. Meanwhile, on 15 April, Nazarbaev received the visiting CEO of ChevronTexaco, David O'Reilly, and awarded him with the government Order of Kurmet (Respect) "for making a great contribution to developing Kazakhstan's Economy." (RFE/RL)