SRP Lawmaker: “Corruption costs half a billion annually”
Yim Sovann, chairman of the Fourth Committee of the National Assembly and the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) lawmaker for Phnom Penh, said at a workshop held to mark International Anti-Corruption Day December 9 that corruption is to blame for most of Cambodia’s ills, newspapers reported December 10.
Claiming that the two largest problems facing Cambodia are corruption and land disputes, he claimed that the government loses over US$500 million each year through corruption, making it impossible to raise civil servants’ salaries and causing inflation, reported Machas Srok News. The loss of state property, natural resources and forests is also due to corruption, he said.
Speaking at Chenla Theater December 9, Sovann appealed for the quick adoption of the long-awaited anti-corruption law. “I detest corruption,” Moneaksekar Khmer quoted him as saying.
Mom Sitha, from NGO the Cambodian Independent Committee to Fight Against Corruption, said that corruption is occurring “everywhere, all the time,” adding that the problem is lowering the living standards of ordinary Cambodians.
(Source: Corruption Monitor Bulletin, Issue 2, January 2008)