NGOs present anti-corruption petition to National Assembly
More than 40 civil society organizations presented a petition bearing 1,098,163 thumbprints and signatures collected from people in 19 towns and provinces across Cambodia to the National
Assembly (NA) on May 16 to pressure the government to speed up its endorsement of the anti-corruption law, local media reported May 16 and 17.
SRP lawmaker Yim Sovann said he does not expect the long-awaited anticorruption law to soon be approved, since he said NA President Heng Samrin designated the NA’s first Commission on
Human Rights, Complaints, Investigation, and NA-Senate Relations, which does not work on corruption, to receive the petition. He said the petition should have been received by the NA’s fourth Commission on Interior, National Defense, Investigation, Anti-Corruption, and Civil
Service Administration, RFA reported.
Thun Saray, director of local rights group Adhoc, said that parliamentarians agreed to accept some requests in the petition, but did not say exactly when the anti-graft bill is to be submitted to the NA, RFA reported May 17.
Khuon Sundary, chairwoman of the NA’s first commission, responded that she was assigned by Heng Samrin to receive the petition, but was not ordered to respond to the requests by civil society organizations, WMC reported May 16.
Cheam Yeap, CPP lawmaker and chairman of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly, said that the anticorruption law has yet to be approved, and that the government is waiting for ideas from the international community.
“The anti-corruption law is now in the hands of the Cambodian government. The international community has asked the government to correct five sections: (1) the identification of corruption (2) components of national anti-corruption committees (3) the declaration of assets of an official with a position of department director upwards (4) the role of the National Anti-Corruption Committee and (5) legal penalties,” the chairman stated, according to Kampuchea Thmey on May 16.
However, he hoped that the anti-corruption law will be submitted to the NA and the NA will begin its discussion to approve the bill soon after the 27-July parliamentary election.
Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said the declaration of assets requirement will not only apply to government officials, but also to lawmakers. “NGO employees will also be required to declare their assets and anyone who has a salary of more than one million riel [around US$250] will be looked into,” said Khieu Kanharith, The Mekong Times reported on May 15.
Kek Galabru, president of local human rights group Licadho, said that corruption costs Cambodia around US$330-500 million annually, or some US$1 million a day, Moneaksekar
Khmer reported May 17.
She also said that if the government could curb corruption, salaries of government officials could be raised to US$130 a month, VOD reported May 16.
(Source: Corruption Monitor, Issue 7, June 2008)