Old-school graft: Official says teachers paid while on leave

Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Tep Nimol
The Phnom Penh Post

The Ministry of Education was ignoring a complaint that some school directors in Kampong Cham province were paying teachers who had taken unpaid leave, an education official said yesterday.

Try Sokleang, vice-director of the education office in Batheay district, said he had lodged a complaint with the ministry a year ago because he was aware of corruption involving 10 teachers.

Hun Sen Batheay, Hun Sen Sandaek, Hun Sen Cherng Chhnok and Hor Namhong Prey Ngea high schools in Batheay district were still paying the teachers, despite them having taken leave and set up businesses, he said.

Cambodia's UN tribunal launches internal graft watchdog

Saturday, August 16, 2008
ABC Radio Australia

Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal has launched a new "ethics monitor" to grapple with ongoing claims of corruption within the court.

The new watchdog comes after the UN Development Programme raised fresh allegations of kickbacks on the Cambodian side of the court in late June, forcing international donors to withhold funding for July.

The anti-corruption committee headed by one of the court's top judges, Kong Srim, and tribunal spokeswoman Helen Jarvis, will field complaints from tribunal staffers and look into any graft claims within the joint Cambodian-UN court.

K Rouge tribunal shakeup

Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Written by Cat Barton
The Phnom Penh Post

Chief of personnel removed as court faces graft allegations

THE Cambodian chief of personnel at the Khmer Rouge tribunal was removed from his post Monday as the court battles anew with allegations that Cambodian staffers paid kickbacks to officials to secure their positions at the UN-backed court.

"He was transferred back to the office of the Council of Ministers," court spokesman Reach Sambath the Post.

Keo Thyvuth was replaced by Rong Chhorng, secretary general for the National Committee for Population and Development, who took office Monday, Reach Sambath said.

"Everything is proceeding as usual," he said, before declining to give further details of the transfer of a key official from the court's embattled office of administration.

Peter Foster, spokesman for the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (UNAKRT), declined comment.

Keo Thyvuth's shift, which court officials refused to call a firing, comes as complaints of kickbacks are being examined by the UN Office of Internal Oversight in New York.

Kickback accusations were first publicised in February 2007, but donors froze funding to the court earlier this month in response to multiple allegations leveled by Cambodian court staffers against more senior officials.

As a result, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which has managed more than US$7 million of court funds since 2006, halted disbursement of money to the Cambodian side of the court. Cambodian staffers' salaries have not been paid for the month of July.

The latest setback comes as the court's judicial side is finally making progress. A closing statement from the office of the co-investigating judges is expected imminently which will pave the way for the first public trial to begin as scheduled in September.

Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, more commonly know by his revolutionary name Duch, is expected to be the first defendant to be put on trial for crimes allegedly committed during the 1975-79 regime.

Graft allegations hit Khmer Rouge trial

12/08/2008

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - International donors have been withholding payments to Cambodia's Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields" tribunal because of concerns about corruption, officials said on Tuesday.

Helen Jarvis, an Australian working on the Cambodian side of the joint Cambodian-U.N. tribunal, said 250 Cambodians had not been paid a total of $700,000 (370,000 pounds) since June,threatening the future of the long-awaited court, which is running over time and budget.

"It is becoming increasingly difficult for Cambodian staff," Jarvis told Reuters.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which has been managing donor funding for the trial, said it had decided to freeze payments last week following a renewed series of allegations of kickbacks involving local staff.

"UNDP is taking the matter very seriously. We have met with donors to keep them informed," UNDP official Aimee Brown said.

The tribunal is in the middle of trying to secure an extra $87 million in funding to supplement the initial budget of $56million, and allow the proceedings to run until 2010.

Five top Khmer Rouge cadres have been charged with war crimes or crimes against humanity for their part in the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people under Pol Pot's four-year reign of terror.

(Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Ed Cropley and Paul Tait)