Ministry Scolds South Korean Firm

Khmer Times
Tin Sokhavuth

Minister of Public Works and Transport Sun Chanthol (center) shakes hands with the president of Dansan Consultants. Supplied

Sun Chanthol, senior minister and minister of Public Works and Transport, met with the president of Dansan Consultants on Friday to talk about the lack of safety signs on a construction site on National Road 21 that allegedly caused two deaths in a traffic accident.

“[The] road construction safety signs have not been properly installed at the construction site, which contributed to a road accident that caused two deaths,” read a post on the ministry’s Facebook page.

Mr. Chanthol also told Jae Weon Yoo, the South Korean consulting company’s president, about a contract violation by the Hanshin Engineering and Construction Company, which hired a subcontractor without the approval of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport.

“In addition, the scope of work of the subcontractor exceeds 50 percent as permitted by the agreement,” read the Facebook post.

For these matters, Mr. Chanthol demanded Dansan Consultants and the construction company be responsible and conduct a thorough evaluation to check whether the road was up to the quality mentioned in the contract.

Previously, the minister told the South Korean construction company that he had to report to the Korea Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) and the South Korean ambassador to let them know the firm was in violation.

He also said that if he did not take any action against the violation, EDCF could stop giving loans to the Kingdom and it would be a big loss to the Cambodian people.

Mr. Chanthol added that his ministry was aware of the low quality of road construction all over the country, which was due to many factors including corruption, low contract costs and floods during the rainy season.

To tackle road quality issues, the ministry has hired a private company to regularly inspect road construction sites and report back to the ministry, which will in turn send a technical team to inspect if the roads are being poorly constructed.

As for National Road 21, Mr. Chanthol said his ministry has performed many road quality tests. The results indicate the road has not been constructed to standards mentioned in the contract, but since the road is not yet finished the company should have more time to make improvements.

If the construction company was unable to build roads to the required quality as mentioned in the contract, Mr. Chanthol said his ministry could terminate the contract and/or ban the company from building roads in the country.

The construction of National Road 21, with a total length of 63.6 kilometers, was launched by Prime Minister Hun Sen in March. Funds for road construction total $61.6 million – $52.54 million as a loan from the South Korean government and $9.06 million from the Cambodian government.

According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the primary road network in Cambodia includes 2,263 kilometers of paved roads that connect the Kingdom to its neighboring countries. The secondary national roads are 3,360 kilometers of mostly unpaved roads and provincial unpaved roads total 6,441 kilometers.

From the ADB’s point of view, the local materials for paving roads are often of poor quality, which requires roads to be repaired every three years.

On the other hand, the lack of border exit facilities slows down trade and passenger traffic. However, cross border facilities exist at Trapang Kreal and Bavet, and the construction of two other border facilities are in progress at Lork and Prey Var at the border with Vietnam.