More Than 40,000 Public Servants Transferred to Sub-National Level in an Administration Reform
Chan Sothea, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Interior and deputy head of the secretariat of the National Committee for Sub-National Democratic Development, speaks at a meeting on the decentralization and deconcentration reform and social accountability works on Dec. 8. Photo: Romdoul Chetra
- By Romdoul Chetra
- December 9, 2023 7:14 PM
PHNOM PENH – As of 2023, more than 40,000 public servants have been transferred to the sub-national level for local development as part of the government’s decentralization and deconcentration reform, which aims to move public service closer to the people.
Chan Sothea, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Interior and deputy head of the secretariat of the National Committee for Sub-National Democratic Development, said that among them, more than 7,000 officials are from the Ministry of Interior, more than 20,000 from the Ministry of Health, and nearly 20,000 from 20 other ministries.
Speaking at a meeting on the decentralization and deconcentration reform and social accountability works on Dec. 8, Sothea said that the public servants have been trained for their roles, responsibilities and procedures through short training sessions, workshops and practical training.
At the same time, the National School of Local Administration has been established to provide capacity-building services for sub-national administrative staff, he said.
According to Sothea, the transfer of functions and responsibilities to the sub-national administration is a process that brings public services closer to the people, facilitates service provision, gives timely and effective response to the actual needs of the population.
While local administration is being empowered in specific areas, the national level and ministries still retain major functions such as setting overall policies, strategies and standards for each sector, implementing major functions that sub-national levels cannot perform, and monitoring the work of national administrations, Sothea said.
Education and health are the two major sectors that have been transferred to the sub-national level.
The government has gradually transferred functions in some areas to sub-national administrations, of which 55 functions in 20 sectors have been transferred to municipal and district administrations, while the functions in the social and health sectors have been transferred to the capital and provincial administrations in accordance with the principle of decentralization.
Originally written in Khmer for ThmeyThmey, this article was translated by Torn Chanritheara for Cambodianess.
