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| Transparency International's World Corruption Map. |
12.12.2012
By VOA Khmer, Men Kimeng
PHNOM PENH - The Cambodian government has designated 2013 as the year it will wage a war on corruption, giving some transparency advocates hopes it can turn around a culture of bribery and graft that has hurt development and kept investors away from the country.
Cambodia is one of Asia’s most corrupt countries, sharing company with Burma, Laos and North Korea, and it is among the 20 worst countries in the world, according to Transparency International’s annual index.
Preap Kol, executive director for a Cambodian branch of the watchdog group, said that could change if the government has the will to tackle the problem.
In an interview with VOA Khmer, Preap Kol said he supports the government’s “soft” approach to corruption, which is pervasive at all levels of government, court and administration.
“If we arrest them all, I don’t think there are enough prisons to hold them,” he said. Arrests can be made “step by step” along with other measures, he said, which could deter many officials from partaking in graft.
The government’s Anti-Corruption Unit has so far shown it wants to tackle graft, he said. But more needs to be done, he said. For example, anti-corruption advocates are now urging the government to make public all charges and fees for government services, so that people can pay the right amount without being asked for more.
Corruption can be damaging to all kinds of public life, Preap Kol said.
“Corruption makes the justice system and good governance go down,” he said. “Due to corruption, justice becomes injustice. Corruption not only affects the lives of our people at present, it also robs opportunities from our children.”
2 comments:
If it is true that government would take 2013 as year of anti corruption, as kaun Khmer I am very happy. With due respect, I would like to send this contribution to H.E Om Yintieng:
Approach: To classify the most corrupt departments according to elaborate criteria:importance of bribe amounts or frequency of corrupt practices. For instance the courts and police personnel are the top corrupt in terms of frequency of corrupt practice, whereas the Ministry of Finance (except tax department where they are corrupt to core), Council of Ministers, Ministry of Land... the amounts of bribe are very important. Don't go to the small places yet, don't try to tackle a great number of places because it may lead to inefficiency.
Modus Operandi: Look for the significant cases involving the Oknha fakes businessman and fake company. In the very hot spot, such as court, slip in the mole. To spot the ugly cases, just see through different methodologies such as conflict of interest, whistle-blowing or cronyism in business. Through existing denounced system, draw the map of suspect cases with likelihood of occurrence.
By taking into account the lack of staff at ACU, I do really think that it is unwise to tackle at once a large number of cases.
Finally, all these above may be fruitful for Cambodians unless anti corruption unit is going to publish its works transparently and to send out to the public information that we are going to educate our people to say NO to corrupt practices.
If you think American not corruption you are wrong. Why crossing GW bridge have to pay $13.00
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