Census officials have refuted allegations that poor-quality paper used for questionnaires may threaten the results of the recent national census.
Stories in the opposition press and critics inside the National Institute of Statistics and the Ministry of Planning alleged that census officials used inferior grades of paper for the questionnaires and pocketed money for kickbacks.
A high-ranking Ministry of Information source, who asked that he not be named, said enumerators used forms printed on poor quality paper that will not hold up to the months of data inputting to take place over the next year.
“The quality of that paper is going to ruin the whole census. The marks from the pencils are going to erase,” the ministry source said.
A second highly placed source in the National Institute of Statistics, who has worked there since 1979, said Wednesday the census used three grades of paper. The best quality was used to show officials. The second best was used in Phnom Penh, while cheaper paper was taken to the provinces.
Both sources said poor-quality pencils were also distributed and said information written on the forms will smudge and erase easily.
“They announced that it was a success…but a lot of the data will be completely erased, so the information will be false,” the statistics official claimed.
Former enumerators also complained of poor-quality paper.
“We had to be careful. It would tear if we weren’t careful with it,” said Chey Chumneas, who gathered data in Phnom Penh. He said sometimes, even when the forms were on a wooden board, the pencil would break through the paper. Other enumerators interviewed also called the paper “second-grade.”
Samples of the two major forms provided by the enumerators showed various qualities of paper. Form B, which included questions about living conditions, mortality rates and education, was brittle and easily torn, especially in creased spots.
The former enumerators in Phnom Penh, however, said they had no problems using the pencils.
An inspection by The Cambodia Daily, which was allowed full access to 99 percent of the forms delivered to the Ministry of Planning so far, showed paper frayed around the edges, but no evidence of pencil marks being erased. The forms are kept in plastic binders in air-conditioned rooms.
Both sources alleged that money allocated for the higher-quality paper found its way into the pockets of high-ranking Ministry and Institute officials, a charge also vehemently denied by workers there.
N Rama Rao, chief technical adviser to the census, said Thursday that all financial matters, including tenders for bids on printing, were undertaken by a committee and no one person had the authority to sign deals.
Two million forms were used during the census, carried out in early March. Form B will be handled three times as the data is compiled, edited and verified over the next year, according to Harry Lode, census data processing adviser.
“When [the data] is on the computer medium, we won’t need the forms anymore,” Lode said. The forms will be destroyed after one year, he added.
Hedi Jemai, representative of the UN Population Fund, which funded the $5 million census, also refuted the allegations Wednesday.
“The quality of the paper which was chosen is quite appropriate
….The quality of the paper is good enough to get the information printed,” he said.
Although the census was conducted under international standards, Jemai said there are no regulations specifying that the paper must be of top quality. He also said that the critics lack expertise, noting there has not been a census here since 1962.
“You cannot just buy the top quality of paper. You have budget constraints,” he said, adding that even if the paper is not top-notch, the handling and storage of the forms will still keep the information intact.
He also added that all contracts were handled with the oversight of the Population Fund in a transparent manner.
(Additional reporting by Kimsan Chantara and Ham Samnang)
