AIDS office denies fraud

Tuesday, 20 December 2011
Chhay Channyda
The Phnom Penh Post

Senior officials at the National AIDS Authority yesterday dismissed allegations that its chair and three close aides had siphoned funds for AIDS awareness campaigns for personal use, but said a committee had been formed to investigate the charges and that some “facilitation fees” had been paid in transfers of funds from the national to provincial offices.

Kao Try, deputy chief of the NAA, said the investigative committee was formed on December 15, two days after the Post reported that staff at the NAA had accused the officials of widespread fraud. The allegations ranged from inflating the price for purchasing condoms to skimming funds earmarked for use by provincial offices. The report was based on interviews as well as documents sent to the Post, including invoices, receipts and photographs.

Kao Try said the allegations that NAA staff had misused national and international funds were false and personally motivated.

Son Chhay asks that official’s wives and children declare their wealth

SRP MP Son Chhay

28 March 2011
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Soch

SRP MP Son Chhay asked the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) that, in addition to ordering government officials to declare their wealth, it should also order the officials’ wives and children to do the same as well. Son Chhay’s request came after Om Yentieng, the ACU chairman, warned government officials, telling them to declare their wealth prior to 07 April. Son Chhay told RFA on 26 March that: “They [gov’t officials] were asked to declare their houses, their cars and their jewelry, but their cash will not be declared. Their wives and children will not have to declare either. It is important that their families to declare. All family members must declare. In Cambodia, even the prime minister used to say that if the husband is a major, the wife is the colonel.”

CITA's letter to Anti-Corruption Unit Requesting to investigate school director of Hun Sen Siem Reap High School in a corruption case

Sok An boasts about Om Yentieng's inept anti-corruption unit

Theary Seng, CSD Director (Photo: Cambodge Soir Hebdo)

Gov’t defends anti-corruption record

Friday, 06 June 2008
Ly Menghour
The Mekong Times

“Corruption was not solved; on the contrary it spread more widely during the third mandate government ... It’s a shameful failure of the rectangular government [strategy] as the anti-corruption law has not been passed and governmental resources such as land, forests and national budget funds were lost” - SRP MP Son Chhay

“Nowadays, the government does not have the real will to eliminate and prevent corruption. The government speaks beautifully about anti-corruption, but real and in-depth suppression and reduction of corruption in our society has yet to be seen” - Theary Seng, CSD Director

The government yesterday defended its anti-corruption record with a statement in response to seven questions raised by Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) parliamentarian Son Chhay. The statement detailed the five-year “rectangular” policies focusing on anti-corruption, a defense poorly received by political opposition and civil society.

Cabinet Minister Sok An said in the statement that the government has made every effort to “keep peace, safety, social stability and security and public order by means of eradicating violence and discrimination to build a nation with justice, equity, freedom from corruption, and protection of people’s rights.”

Despite its failure to pass the anti-corruption law, the government has made a strong commitment to strengthening the rule of law and good governance, Sok An said. The country has other mechanisms to prevent, curb and combat corruption effectively, he continued, including an Anti-Corruption Unit established Aug 22, 2006.

The unit has already received 41 complaints, with 28 cases successfully solved and another 13 cases pending, he said, giving details of a “white” letterbox where complaints can be anonymously posted.

Sok An revealed that the “remarkable results” of the Anti-Corruption Unit included providing “knowledge and education about anti-corruption strategies,” conducting investigations “20 times,” and punishing “two men for extorting money from foreigners.”

Son Chhay was unimpressed by the figures, noting that the long-awaited anti-corruption law was drafted in 1994 but has yet to receive National Assembly (NA) approval.

“Corruption was not solved; on the contrary it spread more widely during the third mandate government,” he told The Mekong Times. “It’s a shameful failure of the rectangular government [strategy] as the anti-corruption law has not been passed and governmental resources such as land, forests and national budget funds were lost.”

Theary Seng, director of the Center for Social Development (CSD), agreed the government’s anti-corruption measures remain inadequate, adding that corruption has become so ingrained as to be part of Cambodian culture.

“Nowadays, the government does not have the real will to eliminate and prevent corruption. The government speaks beautifully about anti-corruption, but real and in-depth suppression and reduction of corruption in our society has yet to be seen.”

Corruption costs Cambodia between US$300-500 million a year, according to a recent United States Agency for International Development (USAID) estimate.

In May, civil society organizations submitted over one million thumbprints to the NA to appeal for more robust anti-corruption legislation.

Deputy Prime Minister Sok An also addressed queries over alleged irregularities regarding the sale of entrance tickets to the Angkor temples, tolls on National Road 4, permission for Bangkok Airways to hold exclusive Bangkok-Siem Reap flights, permission for foreign companies to develop Cambodian islands, forest concessions and other issues.