Int’l Auditors Return To Examine ECCC Further

Auditors examining the human resources section of the Cambo­dian side of the Khmer Rouge tribunal have returned to Phnom Penh for three days of further investigation, Peter Foster, the tribunal’s UN public affairs officer, said Tuesday.

“They felt there was enough information to warrant a more extended audit,” Foster said.

He added that it was unclear exactly what had triggered the additional inquiry.

Candide Consulting, the Kuala Lumpur-based firm that is conducting the audit, visited the court from Jan 29 to Feb 2 and returned Tuesday.

The UN Development Pro­gram, which commissioned the audit in January, declined to respond to specific requests for information on the auditor’s return.

On Wednesday, UNDP spok­es­­man Men Kimseng wrote in a brief email message: “This visit is part of [the] audit process.”

The UNDP, which oversees more than $6 million donated to the court, said in a statement last month that the audit had been triggered by reports in late 2006 that had raised concerns about the transparency of hiring procedures at the tribunal.

It remains unclear whether Candide will, during this visit, be looking into the contentious allegations that Cambodian court officials, including judges, had to kick back part of their salaries in exchange for their jobs.

“[Candide’s] mandate I would think would be broad enough to uncover that sort of activity were it taking place,” Foster said.

Staffers on the Cambodian side of the court have vigorously denied those allegations, which were first publicized in a Feb 14 statement by the Open Society Justice Initiative, a New York-based group that has been monitoring and supporting the tribunal since 2003.

In a Feb 16 letter to OSJI Exe­cutive Director James Gold­ston, the court’s Director of Admin­istration, Sean Visoth, said the UNDP-commissioned audit had nothing to do with the kickback allegations.

ECCC Public Affairs Chief Hel­en Jarvis declined to comment Wednesday on the audit.

Gilbert Bitti, a senior legal advisor at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, said in an interview earlier this month that anything that throws into question the impartiality of judges—including kickbacks for jobs—could become an issue once a case goes to court.

“Everything may become an issue. This is why independent trials are difficult for some states,” he said.