Interior Minister Sar Kheng told an audience of university graduates on Tuesday that recent efforts to clean up the education system would extend to his ministry to combat claims that the civil service is plagued by nepotism.
In a speech at the National Institute of Education in Phnom Penh, Mr. Kheng encouraged graduates from the Human Resources University to take an entrance exam to get a job at the Interior Ministry so that the best available candidates could be selected.
“Now we have a practice of competition for examinations to work as police and administrators,” he said.
“This will…resolve accusations of nepotism or family domination.” Mr. Kheng went on to praise reforms of the grade 12 national exam in August, which saw about 75 percent of students fail due to measures to prevent bribes and cheating. “There were no bribes for getting good grades,” Mr. Kheng said.
“Children of okhnas and civil servants failed the same [as others],” he added.
