Strong ties to the executive branch mean that Cambodia’s new anticorruption unit will fail to tackle corruption at the top of the political ladder, environmental rights group Global Witness claimed yesterday.
The statement from the London-based NGO came seven months after the National Assembly approved the country’s first anti-corruption law, a long-awaited goal among Cambodia’s foreign donors.
“As it stands this strategy will not succeed in catching the real villains,” Global Witness campaigner George Boden said in the statement. “Cambodia’s donors should not be fooled: This does not represent a break from the well-documented and entrenched patterns of corruption at the highest levels of Cambodia’s government.”
The law created the Anticorruption Unit to investigate claims of graft and the National Council for Anticorruption to monitor the ACU’s work.
While foreign donors and aid agencies have backed the law, its swift passage through the Assembly drew criticism from the UN country team, which asked the government to give the public more time to review the draft.
NGOs have criticized the law for empowering the executive to select most anticorruption officials and for allowing whistleblowers who make false claims to be charged with disinformation.
Global Witness also took issue with ACU Chairman Om Yentieng, due to his close ties to Prime Minister Hun Sen and to mining interests.
A 2009 Global Witness report identified Mr Yentieng as a “backer” of the Float Asia mining company, which it accused of extracting marble from protected territory. Mr Yentieng declined to speak with a reporter yesterday.
NCA spokesman Keo Remy defended the agency’s government ties. “We are not undermined by [the executive]…. We can’t order or use force unless we work with the government,” he said.
“We need spies, auditors…to conduct serious investigations…. Corrupt officials don’t write on their foreheads that they are corrupted,” he added.
