Government plans to create Office of the Ombudsman

Tin Sokhavuth



The Royal Government of Cambodia, led by Prime Minister Hun Sen, last week, issued a sub-decree ordering the creation of the "Office of the Ombudsman" at sub-national level nationwide.

According to the sub-decree, the new office will be responsible for investigating and addressing complaints of maladministration of local government officials, especially complaints about graft and corruption.

The letter added that the Office of the Ombudsman has the obligation to give feedback to complainers and to publicly publish the outcome regarding complaints. The Office of the Ombudsman will be divided in two departments - one department will be in charge of addressing complaints and administrative work, the other will be in charge of investigation.

Last week, USAID Cambodia launched a series of public forums known as "My Open Commune" that is also aiming to strengthen good governance, transparency, and accountability at sub-national level.

According to Madame Polly Dunford, USAID Cambodia Mission Director, the forums could help villagers to establish open dialogues with their local government in order to echo their voice concerning their daily lives.

In her speech at the launching ceremony, Madame Dunford outlined that in the next couple of years, these series of public forums will reach 180 communes in six provinces - Kampong Chnang, Battambang, Banteay Mean Chey, Siem Reap, Kampong Thom, and Kampong Cham. On the other hand, My Open Commune forums will also be broadcasted on radio, social media and other means of communication.

Regarding corruption issue, in its Country Partnership Strategy 2014-2018, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) stated that the “low productivity of civil servants” in Cambodia is due to low salaries and inefficient human resource. It could also be understood that the low salaries are the main cause of corrupt practice in many governmental institutions where civil servants often talk about “butter office” – the office in which they could make a lot of money by using corrupt practice.