Sunday, 5 August, 2007
AFP
“This visit is an opportunity for Robert Zoellick to set the tone for his presidency and lay the foundations for the Bank’s approach to kleptocratic governments everywhere” - Global WitnessPHNOM PENH: World Bank president Robert Zoellick arrived in Cambodia yesterday for talks expected to focus on corruption in the impoverished kingdom and bank-supported projects hit by graft scandals.
Zoellick, who took office in July, is to meet with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen today on his first visit to the kingdom. He is also supposed to travel to rural areas to see the bank’s development projects.
But his visit comes as Cambodia continues paying back millions of dollars siphoned off in a massive corruption scandal that forced the World Bank to suspend three key aid projects last year.
The projects have since been reinstated, but the bank has demanded Cambodia repay some $2.9mn after contractual irregularities involving agricultural and flood prevention funds were uncovered.
The issue sparked a row with the Hun Sen government, which initially refused to repay, saying the World Bank must provide more evidence of financial irregularities.
A major environmental group, which published a damning report in June accusing Cambodia’s political elite of illegally plundering the country’s forests, on Friday urged Zoellick to address corruption during his two-day visit.
“This visit is an opportunity for Robert Zoellick to set the tone for his presidency and lay the foundations for the Bank’s approach to kleptocratic governments everywhere,” Global Witness said in a statement.
Officials said Zoellick was also expected to visit the Khmer Rouge’s notorious Tuol Sleng prison, a former high school that was converted into a torture centre during the 1975-79 communist regime.
Cambodia, which is plagued by corruption at almost every level of government, also fell foul of the World Bank in 2003, when graft was uncovered in a project to demobilise some 30,000 soldiers.
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