The Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) has questioned a Phnom Penh commune chief over allegations that he accepted thousands of dollars to illegally approve a birth certificate for a Chinese national.
ACU chairman Om Yentieng said on Sunday that Yin Vuth, the chief of Chbar Ampov district’s Chbar Ampov II commune, was questioned by the unit on Friday.
“Whether he issued the birth certificate or not, it’s his duty to lead officials in doing that. But we think it was involved with money,” he said.
“We did not arrest him. We just asked him to show us the documents.”
Mr. Yentieng declined to elaborate on the allegations, but said other officials would be questioned today to cross-check the commune chief’s answers.
Mr. Vuth said he was accused of accepting $12,000 from a Chinese national named Chan Vanna for a fake birth certificate, but he denied taking a bribe or doing anything else illegal.
He said he did sign off on a birth certificate for a man by that name in 2013, but was presented with all the necessary identification by the commune clerk.
“I saw that there were enough documents,” he said.
“He had a family book and a residence certificate. He has a Khmer name, Chan Vanna, and was born in the 1960s.”
