UN Audit Found Tribunal Fell Short in Staffing

Mean Veasna, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
02 October 2007

The Khmer Rouge tribunal is struggling under a number of deficiencies, including under-qualified staff, high salary scales and weak evaluation and monitoring of court activities, according to UNDP audit issued in June.

In an audit posted on the Web Tuesday, a UNDP team recommended the UN seriously consider "withdrawing from the project altogether" if the shortcomings were not addressed.

The audit was posted Tuesday on the Web site of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, or ECCC, the official name of the tribunal.

The audit's confidentiality had been a point of contention for human rights and justice advocacy groups, who wanted the findings made public when the audit was completed, following allegations last year that Cambodian judges pay kickbacks to government officials in order to sit in the courts.

The Cambodian side of the tribunal called the UNDP's recommendations "completely out of proportion," "unacceptable," and "non-negotiable."

A statement that accompanied the audit's release said the Cambodian side had long been in favor of publicizing the audit.

The audit row comes just as the tribunal was gaining momentum. Khmer Rouge ideologue Nuon Chea was arrested just last month, joining Tuol Sleng prison chief Duch in tribunal custody.

The audit also comes with a looming budget pinch.

In an interview with VOA Khmer in New York ahead of the UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said Monday the tribunal budget was "lacking."

"At about the end of the year, Cambodia and the UN will jointly appeal for an additional budget," he said. "The lack is minimal.... I think that there will be no problem, because the proceedings are going smoothly."

The audit was made public the following day. The now-public document does not include any findings of outright corruption, bribery or kickbacks, long hallmarks of Cambodia's judiciary. Instead, it points out serious mismanagement in hiring practices and other shortcomings.

"If the Cambodian side does not agree to the essential measures at are, from UNDP perspective, necessary to ensure the integrity and success of the project, then serious consideration should be given to withdrawing from participation in the project altogether," the audit report said.

It also cited "serious lapses in recruitment" leading to jobs that "should be nullified." A new job search should be launched "with clearly established procedures under the close supervision of UNDP," the audit says.

The tribunal said in its response this would not be possible, asking where money for such a do-over would come from.

The audit recommended a careful review of Cambodian salaries along with justifications for pay. It found high salary scales for tribunal staff, a significant increase in staff, and staff that did not meet minimum requirements.

In a review of 29 staff files, the audit found 18 people who did not qualify for their jobs.

Auditors found one person working a job requiring a degree in English and a minimum three years experience in professional interpretation. The tribunal employee in that position only had part-time experience interpreting and was pursuing a degree in education.

The audit found a very low number of respondents to job vacancies. Where 50 applicants or more were the norm, according to UNDP-Cambodia, only a handful of Cambodians applied for tribunal jobs. There was only one response for the job of internal auditor.

The Cambodian side of the tribunal issued numerous responses to accusations leveled against it. The most qualified applicants were chosen among those who applied, and job postings had been thoroughly circulated, the tribunal said.

Audit finds flaws in KRouge tribunal hiring

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — An audit of Cambodia's genocide tribunal has highlighted serious hiring flaws and suggests that the UN's development agency UNDP, which oversees millions in donor funding, should quit the court.

The audit was commissioned by the UNDP last year following allegations that some Cambodian staff had paid for their positions on the UN-backed court, which was established to try former leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime.

But it was only made public late Monday amid growing pressure for its release.

The audit details a tangled bureaucracy inside the Cambodian side of the joint-court, rife with unqualified staff, bloated salaries and the creation of dozens of unnecessary jobs costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"If the Cambodian side does not agree to the essential measures that are, from UNDP perspective, necessary to ensure the integrity and success of the project, then serious considerations should be given to withdrawing from participation in the project altogether," the audit said.

It goes on to recommend that all Cambodian contracts be nullified, and new employees hired under closer UNDP supervision.

The UNDP says the audit is a private document and would not comment, but tribunal staff maintain that they have nothing to hide and have responded to most of the findings.

One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the court, which posted the audit on its website, had always wanted the findings to be made public.

But the official also dismissed the audit's recommendation that the UNDP withdraw from the court.

"Imagine if they were to leave this late in the game, 18 months on. It would be disastrous," the official said.

The court is currently investigating five people for crimes committed during the communist Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 rule over Cambodia, during which up to two million people died.

So far two suspects, former prison chief Duch and regime ideologue Nuon Chea, have been detained.

The tribunal's decision to post the audit comes as the cash-strapped court prepares to launch a major fund-raising campaign.

Tribunal spokesperson Helen Jarvis said earlier that the court has enough money to continue operating through early next year, but that budget shortfalls could threaten to delay the process after that.

Some 56.3 million dollars have been budgeted for the long-stalled trials, but the Cambodian government has so far only pledged a fraction of its 13 million-dollar share.

The rest, officials say, must come from additional donor funding, although there are fears that the international community might be unlikely to pay for what it perceives as a flawed process.

UN warning on Cambodia tribunal

Tuesday, 2 October 2007
By Guy De Launey
BBC News, Phnom Penh

A United Nations report criticising the Cambodian administration of the Khmer Rouge trials has been made public.

The report says the special courts are employing unqualified staff at inflated salaries, without a proper recruitment process.

It recommends that the UN pull out of the process if changes are not made.

The courts are probing allegations of genocide by the Khmer Rouge. More than one million people are thought to have died during the regime's 1975-79 rule.

'Unbalanced account'

The audit says the courts are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on staff who should not have been employed.

KHMER ROUGE TRIBUNAL

• Will try cases of genocide and crimes against humanity
• Five judges (three Cambodian) sit in trial court
• Cases decided by majority
• Maximum penalty is life imprisonment
• Budget of $56.3m

It described more than 50 as "excess" hirings beyond the original budget and it said that more than half of the courts' Cambodian employees did not have the required qualifications or experience.

All Cambodian staff contracts should be cancelled and the recruitment process re-started from scratch.

The United Nations Development Programme says that "serious consideration should be given to withdrawing from the project", if the Cambodian administration refuses to address its concerns.

In response, the Cambodian side has called the audit an "unbalanced account" and its recommendations "out of proportion".

It says that great achievements have been made despite major difficulties and that many problems could have been averted with more assistance from the UN.

The Open Society Justice Initiative, which is monitoring the courts, has welcomed the report's publication.

But the organisation said it was disappointed that the report had not looked into other allegations of corruption.

The Justice Initiative claimed in February that Cambodian staff were paying part of their salaries to superiors in return for being hired.