Prime Minister Hun Sen signed a sub-decree last month outlining pensions and bonuses for retired judges and prosecutors.
According to the subdecree, which is dated Feb 4 and was obtained Monday, judges and prosecutors will be paid eight months’ salary on the day they retire and receive a monthly pension payment equal to their final month’s salary until the day they die.
The subdecree states that the “calculation of the pension must be based on the last basic salaries,” but it does not specify how long judges and prosecutors must work in the positions before they are eligible for the pensions or at what age retirees become eligible for their pensions. The mandatory retirement age for judicial officials is 60.
Several court officials who were forced to retire about five years ago said Monday that they are still waiting for the Ministry of Social Affairs to pay them their pensions.
Former Kandal Provincial Prosecutor Chheng Phat, 77, said Monday that he had planned to bring the latest subdecree to Minister of Social Affairs Ith Sam Heng and ask him to calculate his monthly pension.
“[I] don’t know what the old [formula] was based on,” Chheng Phat said. “I have been waiting for this information for a long time.”
Bou Pin, another retired prosecutor, said Monday that the former court officials have not received any pension payments.
“I have never seen the money; it’s already been five years,” Bou Pin said. “We were all the first ones who had cleared the roads.”
Ith Sam Heng said he was too busy to talk to a reporter, and Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana could not be reached to comment on the subdecree.
