Group 01:Mr. Heng Chhuy (Combination)Ms. Eng Vouch HorngMr. Duong Vichheka Term of Study: Summer

Ms. Hou Vouchcheang Year of Study: 2013

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SUBJECT: INTRO-POLITICAL SCIENCETopic: How to reduce corruption in

Cambodia?Prof: Bunthoen THUN

Contents1 Introduction• What is corruption?• Corruption in Cambodia

2 Corruption Issues • Anti-corruption law effects in Cambodia • Corruption consequences• Standards expected from public services

3 What should be done to fight corruption?

4 Conclusions and Recommendations2

1. Introduction

•What is corruption? •Corruption is the word that all the people don’t

want to hear about. Here are the definitions of corruption:

Corruption is the misuse of public power (by elected politician or appointed civil servant) for private gain.

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What is corruption?

•Dr. Petrus van Duyne: Corruption is an improbity or decay in the decision-making process in which a decision-maker consents to deviate or demands deviation from the criterion which should rule his or her decision-making, in exchange for a reward or for the promise or expectation of a reward, while these motives influencing his or her decision-making cannot be part of the justification of the decision.•Major corruption comes close whenever major events

involving large sums of money, multiple ‘players’, or huge quantities of products (think of food and pharmaceuticals) often in disaster situations, are at stake.

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Corruption in Cambodia

• Corruption is perceived as abuse of power. • Its two main causes are thought to be officials’ low salaries and high officials’ greed for power and wealth. • On the other hand, ordinary Cambodians lack community solidarity, have little awareness of their rights, and are afraid.

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Corruption in Cambodia

•According to T.I.’s 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), Cambodia ranked 157th among 176 countries and territories listed, with a score of just 22 out of 100—a slight improvement on last year’s ranking of 164.

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2. Corruption Issues

•Nowadays, all the people in Cambodia know clearly about the issues of corruption. Corruption the big problem of developing our country, there are many issues that we have to know more and understand about.

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2. Corruption Issues•After decades of civil war and political violence,

corruption has pervaded almost every sectors of Cambodian public life, with a system of patronage well entrenched in society. Both petty and grand forms of corruption are widespread. •Law enforcement agencies are perceived as the

most corrupt and inefficient sectors, lacking the independence, resources and capacity to effectively investigate and prosecute corruption cases.

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Anti-corruption law effects in Cambodia

•As Cambodia has big corruption problem that must be reduce, Cambodia government was started to make The Law to Anti-Corruption.•The Law on Anti-Corruption approved by

the National Assembly on March 11, 2010. The purpose is to reduce the corruption in Cambodia, and is also help Cambodia improve fast. 9

Anti-corruption law effects in Cambodia

•But since the law was start till nowadays, Law just is on the paper. Cambodia continues to rank among the most corrupt countries in the world and much need to be done to enforce the Anti-Corruption Law and investigate allegations of corruption. As our daily activity every day, we always meet people live with corruption. (“Transparency

International (T.I.) Cambodia”)

• They always use their money or property to get the power or do everything that they want to do.

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Corruption consequences

•When we say about the consequences, Corruption has many problems that effect to all people in Cambodia. Our country cannot develop fast by corruption also. According to the book “Saart SaOm” wrote that; “Corruption invariably implies the notion of taking advantage, prevaricating, exploiting others.

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Corruption consequences• This general perception derives from day-to-day

routine. Most respondents report very similar personal encounters with corruption, linked to their daily living experience.

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Teachers 44%Commune/Sangkat officials 37%Traffic police 33%Nobody 25%Local police 21%Govt officials 8%

Who requested money from you or from your family in the past 12 months

Corruption consequences• Teachers head the list of the corrupt which is

compounded by several examples of corruption based on familism (Krousa Niyum) and partyism (Pak Puok Niyum).

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Corruption will always exist in Cambodia 77Corruption takes two people 56A little corruption makes things easier 55The powerful take advantage of the poor 52Corruption is the illegal pressure to do something 37Officials are poor, so they must ask for money 30Corruption is part of everyday life 22

Agreement with statements (scale -200 to +200. Significant agreement >50)

Standards expected from public services

• In this table provides a fairly reliable impression of how Cambodians consider public employment: How much should one pay to obtain a simple Government job (e.g. police)?

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Nothing 7%

Up to 100 US$ 22%

Up to 500 US$ 27%

Up to 1,000 US$ 14%

More than 1,000 US$ 9%

Don’t know/ No answer 21%

Standards expected from public services

•As our daily life and activity. We are agree that the structure of Government cannot control the bureaucracy everywhere, that’s the cause of corruption: for instance having many different collectors of tax payments - tax officers, local police, traffic police, firemen….

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Standards expected from public services

• The main causes of corruption

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Officials have low salaries 49%Officials want money to become more powerful 27%Cambodia is getting richer and so officials are greedier 25%People don't understand well how damaging corruption is 23%Officials threaten people if people don't pay 20%Denouncing corruption can be dangerous 18%People are always ready to give a little gift to an official 15%

Everybody knows that it is there, and so they go along with 12%

People don't know the official fees for a service 11%

What should be done to fight corruption in Cambodia? • Corruption is observed as impossible to eliminate

completely, but respondents without dissent thought it could be reduced if the salaries of officials were substantially raised. • Most officials would be then ashamed to keep

asking for money. This action should be combined with a strong anti-corruption law, to be actively enforced, and with more pressure on the part of donor countries, IOs and NGOs.

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What should be done to fight corruption in Cambodia? • Fighting corruption is the responsibility of every

Cambodian. Corruption can be reduced if we all work together. You can help to reduce corruption in a number of ways:• Refuse to accept bribes or pay bribes• Always ask for a receipt when paying a government fee

or other fees • Ask officials what they use unofficial payments for

when you are asked to pay them • Allow time for official procedures to be followed and

refuse to pay the speed fee 18

What should be done to fight corruption in Cambodia? • Encourage local government offices to publicize official

fees• Let your commune council members know that you are

concerned about corruption• Take an active interest in the development of projects in

your commune• Ask your commune council for copies of official project

budgets and documents• Advocate for the passing of an Freedom of Information

Law• Let your member of parliament know that you are

concerned about the government passing an international standard anti-corruption law

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What should be done to fight corruption in Cambodia? • As a result, the most important part of the Anti-

corruption law will be the establishment of an independent anti-corruption body that will investigate and prosecute cases of corruption.• The best choices to combat corruption, we should

take proper measures such as streaming administrative procedures, simplifying and modernizing the tax system, eliminating excessive regulation, and motivating public servants in order to reduce the opportunities for corruption.

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Conclusions and Recommendations

• Corruption is perceived, above all, as abuse of power. Respondents saw it as pervasive, a permanent part of Cambodian life; it implies giver/taker co-operation; it has some social utility.• The main two perceived causes are officials’ low

salaries and high officials’ greed for power and its trappings: they work as a dual mechanism, top-to-bottom and back. But people’s ignorance of corruption’s damages and their readiness to give officials “a little gift” are important too. 21

Conclusions and Recommendations

•A positive note is that awareness of corruption-related matters is growing. It could be developed – through appropriate campaigns - into an awareness of what are the right costs of the most common Govenment services, and into a more widespread habit of asking for receipt when asked for money.

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References• Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, ‘Overview of corruption in

Cambodia’. @ http://www.u4.no/publications/overview-of-corruption-in-cambodia/

• Clean, ‘Working together to Fight Corruption’. @ http://www.pactcambodia.org/Publications/Anti_Corruption/Clean_Hand_Leaflet_ENGLISH.pdf

• Indochina Research, February 2007, Saart Saom ‘Perceiving and Fighting Corruption in Cambodia’. @ http://www.pactcambodia.org/Publications/Anti_Corruption/Perceiving_and_Fighting_Corruption_in_Cambodia.pdf

• Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer (WASHINGTON DC ) 2012 , 14 August

• The Cambodia Daily ( Phnom Penh) 2012, 06 December.

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THANK FOR ATTENDANCE AND ATTENTION