39 Officials Reprimanded For Smuggling
By Kay Kimsong
THE CAMBODIA DAILY
Om Yentieng, the government's new Anti-Corruption Committee chief and adviser to Prime Minister Hun Sen, said Wednesday that 39 Banteay Meanchey province officials have been reprimanded following the committee's first completed investigation into car smuggling.
Hiv Kim Heng, chief of the provincial customs department, and Choeung Sokhom, the provincial police chief are among those who will be transferred or demoted from their jobs, Om Yentieng said.
"This action is just the prime minister's light fist," Om Yentieng told a press conference at the Council of Ministers. "But for his next activities, hopefully, Samdech will add more weight of his fist," he said.
In total, 36 of the punished officials work for the customs department, one for the police and two were the chiefs of Malai and Boeng Trakoun district checkpoints where the smuggling occurred. They were discovered following tipoffs gathered during ''Operation Boat Race 2006," an investigation that commenced during the Water Festival, he said.
Om Yentieng said that the officials will work for six months without pay for their role in smuggling 800 cars and Sports Utility Vehicles from Thailand, which cost the government millions of dollars in taxes.
"We found no evidence related to officials at the Customs and Excise Department in Phnom Penh," he added.
Police chief Choeung Sokhom said that it was unfair to punish him for the car smuggling operation because he was not the ringleader.
"How do I have the right to allow right-hand car-smuggling?" he said, adding that at least 10 government officials were involved in the scam. He declined to name those involved, but added that the Ministry of Interior was working on his behalf to find a "solution" to his punishment.
Hiv Kim Heng and his boss Pen Siman, the director of the Finance Ministry's Customs and Excise Department could not be reached for comment.
The Anti-Corruption Committee was created in August as a temporary measure while the long-delayed Anti-Corruption Law awaits submission to the National Assembly. Donors have called on the government to use the law to create a completely independent anti-corruption commissioner.
Hiv Kim Heng, chief of the provincial customs department, and Choeung Sokhom, the provincial police chief are among those who will be transferred or demoted from their jobs, Om Yentieng said.
"This action is just the prime minister's light fist," Om Yentieng told a press conference at the Council of Ministers. "But for his next activities, hopefully, Samdech will add more weight of his fist," he said.
In total, 36 of the punished officials work for the customs department, one for the police and two were the chiefs of Malai and Boeng Trakoun district checkpoints where the smuggling occurred. They were discovered following tipoffs gathered during ''Operation Boat Race 2006," an investigation that commenced during the Water Festival, he said.
Om Yentieng said that the officials will work for six months without pay for their role in smuggling 800 cars and Sports Utility Vehicles from Thailand, which cost the government millions of dollars in taxes.
"We found no evidence related to officials at the Customs and Excise Department in Phnom Penh," he added.
Police chief Choeung Sokhom said that it was unfair to punish him for the car smuggling operation because he was not the ringleader.
"How do I have the right to allow right-hand car-smuggling?" he said, adding that at least 10 government officials were involved in the scam. He declined to name those involved, but added that the Ministry of Interior was working on his behalf to find a "solution" to his punishment.
Hiv Kim Heng and his boss Pen Siman, the director of the Finance Ministry's Customs and Excise Department could not be reached for comment.
The Anti-Corruption Committee was created in August as a temporary measure while the long-delayed Anti-Corruption Law awaits submission to the National Assembly. Donors have called on the government to use the law to create a completely independent anti-corruption commissioner.
3 comments:
it is only first joke to perform, after a while these people will be back with smile to their post, it happened several time
Agree with 3:27PM.
Donor countries take note, because there are always impressive shows like this before or after the critical reviews of the Cambodian government's inadequate performance. Then, it is back to business as usual, and those corrupt high-ranking officials just laugh all the way to the banks with the donors money.
Corruption is institutionalised from top to bottom. And, those top corrupt officials can now talk to donor countries without any guilty feeling or shame about the corruption problem in Cambodia, as though they have just been made aware of it.
As for this theatrical act, the awarded scores are: 10 out of 10 for artistic impression, and 5 out of 10 for technical merit.
Why the light fist? Why not go all the way? I suspect, there will never be a heavy fist against corruption.
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