A representative from the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has arrived in Phnom Penh to investigate possible corruption in World Bank military demobilization and forest crime projects in Cambodia, US Embassy spokeswoman Heide Bronke said Tuesday.
James Branegan, a Foreign Relations Committee staff member, arrived Sunday for a week-long trip “in conjunction with a series of hearings that address corruption and safeguards against corruption in World Bank and other development bank projects,” Heide Bronke said.
She said Branegan was looking into troop demobilization and “the controversy over forest crime monitoring and Global Witness,” the former independent forest monitor for the government.
Bronke said she had no further details about the investigation.
Development projects in Argentina, Kenya, Indonesia and other countries have already been the subject of testimony at US Senate hearings, which began May 13 to look into projects funded by lenders the US gives money to.
Those lenders include the
Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.
At the first hearing, Committee Chairman Richard Lugar said, “Over the past year, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff has collected information from public and confidential sources related to alleged corruption involving multilateral development bank activities and projects.”
Nisha Agrawal, World Bank country manager for Cambodia would not comment Tuesday on the visit, and asked for written questions to forward to the managers of the forestry and demobilization projects, who are based in Bangkok and Washington.
Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith was also not aware of the visit, though he said, “I invite them to come and investigate.”
Mike Davis of Global Witness said that Branegan met representatives of his organization Tuesday, but he gave few details of the meeting.
UK-based Global Witness monitored the government’s response to forest crime for three years, until its contract was not renewed in July. The government claimed to have fired the organization in April 2003, alleging that it was “an extremist group” that damaged the government’s relationship to donors.
The World Bank, which made an independent forestry monitor a loan requirement for the government, maintained its support for Global Witness, but allowed the government to hire a different organization, Societe Generale de Surveillance. SGS officially started monitoring in February.
Forest crime monitoring and prevention is part of the Bank’s $4.8 million Forest Concession Management and Control Pilot project that began in June 2000.
No specific allegations of misuse of World Bank funds have surfaced so far, though Global Witness has alleged that forestry officials frequently mediate illegal timber deals and other forest crimes.
Global Witness also reported at least one incident of conflict of interest last year, when a government forestry official was assigned to the World Bank project who also worked as a representative for a logging company.
Ty Sokhun, director of the Forestry Administration, said he was unaware of the investigation and called allegations of corruption “laughable.”
“World Bank money just goes for the project,” he said. “The money that is spent is documented, so nobody can be corrupt.”
World Bank funds for the military demobilization project, however, were misused.
The World Bank’s multimillion dollar project to demobilize and reintegrate 30,000 RCAF soldiers has been stalled since July 2003, after the World Bank declared misprocurement on a government contract, saying that the company did not meet the requirements of bid documents. The World Bank demanded that the government repay $2.8 million.
Bank officials said in December that no further funding will be considered for the demobilization until a new government is formed.
Cabinet Minister Sok An, who heads the demobilization project with Council of Ministers Under Secretary of State Svay Sitha, said he was too busy to comment to two separate calls on Tuesday.
Khieu Kanharith would not say whether the government had paid back the demobilization money, saying only, “We are ready to demobilize according to the plan.”
(Additional reporting by Thet Sambath and Phann Ana)
