Bank Lists 13 More Contracts It Calls Tainted
By Erik Wasson and Lor Chandara
THE CAMBODIA DAILY
"As Samdech Prime Minister said, please bring evidence to the table.
All disbursements were approved by
both World Bank consultants and Cambodians."
—Ou Orhat,
Secretary of State,
Planning Ministry
All disbursements were approved by
both World Bank consultants and Cambodians."
—Ou Orhat,
Secretary of State,
Planning Ministry
The World Bank on Thursday released details of corruption in more multimillion-dollar Bank-funded government projects, this time at the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Planning.
The latest report brings to 43 the number of misprocured contracts, valued at $11.9 million, that the World Bank has discovered in five projects being undertaken by at least six government ministries.
The Bank said earlier this month that it had found problems in 30 contracts valued at $7.6 million. The new information relates to an additional 13 contracts, worth $43 million, in two completed Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Planning projects.
The Bank has not yet determined how much the government will have to pay back for the projects.
According to the World Bank, the Agriculture Ministry's Productivity Improvement project was found to have conflict of interest in one contract and corruption in three contracts.
The Planning Ministry's Flood Emergency Rehabilitation project was found to have nine contracts "affected by fraud, collusion and corruption," the Bank added.
Earlier this month, the bank froze funding on the Industry Ministry's waterworks project, a Ministry of Land Management land titling project and a Rural Development Ministry and Transport Ministry road project.
Thursday's Bank statement also said that the Agriculture Ministry's Forest Concession Management Pilot Project also had instances of misprocurement declared last year, but did not elaborate further.
Amid strident verbal attacks by Prime Minister Hun Sen and other government ministries that the Bank had not provided evidence to support its allegations, the Bank statement detailed the irregularities that it said it had brought to the government's attention.
"The World Bank team shared with the Government the types of corrupt practices found during the investigation process in Cambodia," the statement said.
"[S]olicitation and acceptance of bribes, sometimes as a condition for permitting companies to participate in bidding; rigging of bids for construction contracts; manipulation of procurement; fraudulent bid securities, price fixing and collusion to manipulate tenders, inflate bid prices and fix the outcomes of competitive procurement procedures; and submission of fraudulent bids by unqualified bidders," it said.
The Bank added that it had given more than enough evidence to the government and reiterated that it would not name its confidential informants, as Hun Sen demanded on Wednesday.
"The evidence and information given, including on the specific contracts, the companies involved and the nature of the problem that occurred will be of great help to the Government," the statement read.
"One piece of information which the Bank cannot provide are the names of witnesses, as confidentiality was promised to them as part of the investigation process, per World Bank policies."
Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said that his staff is investigating the allegations in his ministry's World Bank-funded projects at the request of Men Sam An, Minister of National Assembly and Senate Relations and Inspection. The government had said that Men Sam An's ministry would investigate the scandal.
"I have ordered my ministry to investigate and am still waiting for information," Chan Sarun said.
"We finished three projects in 2005. And all were done without problems and private auditor Pricewaterhouse [Coopers] did [an audit] too," he said.
Minister of Planning Chhay Than declined to comment on the allegations of corruption in his ministry's flood project.
Planning Ministry Secretary of State Ou Orhat said his ministry saw no evidence of corruption in the project which it shared with other ministries.
"As Samdech Prime Minister said, please bring evidence to the table. All disbursements were approved by both World Bank consultants and Cambodians. I don't know where they got their information from," Ou Orhat said.
The latest report brings to 43 the number of misprocured contracts, valued at $11.9 million, that the World Bank has discovered in five projects being undertaken by at least six government ministries.
The Bank said earlier this month that it had found problems in 30 contracts valued at $7.6 million. The new information relates to an additional 13 contracts, worth $43 million, in two completed Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Planning projects.
The Bank has not yet determined how much the government will have to pay back for the projects.
According to the World Bank, the Agriculture Ministry's Productivity Improvement project was found to have conflict of interest in one contract and corruption in three contracts.
The Planning Ministry's Flood Emergency Rehabilitation project was found to have nine contracts "affected by fraud, collusion and corruption," the Bank added.
Earlier this month, the bank froze funding on the Industry Ministry's waterworks project, a Ministry of Land Management land titling project and a Rural Development Ministry and Transport Ministry road project.
Thursday's Bank statement also said that the Agriculture Ministry's Forest Concession Management Pilot Project also had instances of misprocurement declared last year, but did not elaborate further.
Amid strident verbal attacks by Prime Minister Hun Sen and other government ministries that the Bank had not provided evidence to support its allegations, the Bank statement detailed the irregularities that it said it had brought to the government's attention.
"The World Bank team shared with the Government the types of corrupt practices found during the investigation process in Cambodia," the statement said.
"[S]olicitation and acceptance of bribes, sometimes as a condition for permitting companies to participate in bidding; rigging of bids for construction contracts; manipulation of procurement; fraudulent bid securities, price fixing and collusion to manipulate tenders, inflate bid prices and fix the outcomes of competitive procurement procedures; and submission of fraudulent bids by unqualified bidders," it said.
The Bank added that it had given more than enough evidence to the government and reiterated that it would not name its confidential informants, as Hun Sen demanded on Wednesday.
"The evidence and information given, including on the specific contracts, the companies involved and the nature of the problem that occurred will be of great help to the Government," the statement read.
"One piece of information which the Bank cannot provide are the names of witnesses, as confidentiality was promised to them as part of the investigation process, per World Bank policies."
Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said that his staff is investigating the allegations in his ministry's World Bank-funded projects at the request of Men Sam An, Minister of National Assembly and Senate Relations and Inspection. The government had said that Men Sam An's ministry would investigate the scandal.
"I have ordered my ministry to investigate and am still waiting for information," Chan Sarun said.
"We finished three projects in 2005. And all were done without problems and private auditor Pricewaterhouse [Coopers] did [an audit] too," he said.
Minister of Planning Chhay Than declined to comment on the allegations of corruption in his ministry's flood project.
Planning Ministry Secretary of State Ou Orhat said his ministry saw no evidence of corruption in the project which it shared with other ministries.
"As Samdech Prime Minister said, please bring evidence to the table. All disbursements were approved by both World Bank consultants and Cambodians. I don't know where they got their information from," Ou Orhat said.
3 comments:
Under Hun Sen regime, corruption is very normal. Hun Sen has schooled UN representative for not understanding Cambodian culture. Cambodian culture according to Hun Sen is that corruption is a normal practice because everyone earn very low salary. If they do not corrupted how these people can survive. If you want to help him, just give monies and shut up.
AH HUN SEN is creating a Cambodian society that feed on it own flesh with the help of the World Bank and an approval from United Nations. AH HUN SEN couldn't ask for more! ahahah I am fed up!
how many more from programs did the worols banks had give to the CPP for the past years.
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