In a government directive signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday, provincial staff were ordered to submit their lists of military and civil service pensioners to the ministries of Finance and Social Affairs by the second week of each month to ensure timely delivery of funds.
Late payments are a common complaint among retired soldiers and civil servants.
“The detailed documents and the list of retiree names have to be sent from the provincial financial department on the second week of each month,” the directive reads.
Prum Sopheap, Kampot province’s director of social affairs, said she struggled to send off the forms on time every month because some documents go missing and many of her staff did not know how to use computers, and often resorted to sending the paperwork to Phnom Penh by taxi.
Heng Vongthearith, deputy director of the department of pensions at the Ministry of Social Affairs, said there are 50,000 to 60,000 retired soldiers and police in Cambodia.
He did not have figures for other retired civil servants.
