Parts of Kandal Provincial Court flooded Monday, “seriously damaging” case files and forcing the electricity to be cut, court officials said yesterday.
As of yesterday, power had not been restored and employees had not returned to work.
Court president In Vanvibol yesterday could not provide an estimate of the cost of the damage or say how many documents were affected.
Mr Vanvibol said many case files in the court clerk’s office on the ground floor were soaked during flash flooding Monday morning.
He said damage was not serious, adding that he filed a report with Minister of Justice Ang Vong Vathana detailing the damage. Mr Vanvibol declined to provide details about the report.
“Some of [the files] were damaged, such as water erasing some letters or stamps,” he said yesterday.
Chhiv Rindy, a clerk at the court prosecutor’s office, said the damaged files came from both civil and criminal cases.
“Documents at the prosecution’s office were not damaged very much,” he said. “But [the flooding] happened a lot in the judge’s section as well.”
The court’s ground offices flooded Monday when employees were still celebrating the Pchum Ben holiday, Mr Rindy said, adding that the water stood about 1 meter. He said electricity was cut to prevent circuits from shorting in the building.
Mr Rindy added that the soaked documents have since been moved to a dry area.
Provincial Police Brigadier General Iv Chamroeun said areas of Kandal province were still flooded as of yesterday afternoon.
He said his department had kept copies of many documents, and that he would be willing to share them with the court if necessary.
Mr Vong Vathana, the Justice Minister, could not be reached yesterday. His deputy cabinet chief and spokesman for the ministry Bunyay Narin acknowledged the report had been received, but said he couldn’t remember its contents.
