Pay For No Work: A Civil Service Scandal

Justice Minister Keut Rith said some officials in the justice sector work only one day a month while others have absences lasting half a year. Photo from Justice Ministry Facebook

Nepotism and corruption to blame, say analysts

PHNOM PENH Civil servants getting paid despite not turning up for work remains a problem with measures to tackle the issue often being ineffective, social analysts say.



The analysts call for an end to entrenched corruption which they say is part of the problem.



Justice Minister Keut Rith said some officials in the justice sector work only one day a month while others have absences lasting half a year.



“From now on, discipline must be strengthened. Please take legal action,” he said.



He was speaking at a meeting of the Ministry of Justice on April 12 to review the work results in 2021 and set the work direction for 2022.



Not only prosecutors and judges, but other officials in the judiciary should also be monitored and their attendance must be carefully tracked, he said.



Yong Kim Eng, president of the People Center for Development and Peace, said the problem of inactive civil servants had been around for a long time and it was time it was solved.



Many measures had been set out but these seemed to be ineffective due to nepotism and favoritism in public institutions, he said.



“It’s disappointing. Due to nepotism, inactive officials can return to work and repeat the same mistakes after they get punished, and they cannot be withdrawn from the positions,” Kim Eng said.



“The action cannot be effectively taken if a father and the son are working at the same institutions.”



If the government did not eliminate inactive personnel, resources for development and the provision of services could be lost as workers fail to carry out their duties properly. Government productivity could also suffer, he said.



Social development analyst Meas Ny said inactivity in government institutions occurs due to the culture of working according to the amount of salary.



In the past, civil servants could barely live on the low pay. However, their attitudes don’t change as their salaries rise. They still think they are not paid enough.



This problem can also be caused by nepotism, favoritism and weak management, Ny said.



“The leaders and bosses are role models for personnel. If the leaders are careless about their work, the staff might be as well. We do not know who disciplines whom,” he said.



Public institutions lack a thorough study of their need and demands. Staff recruitment exceeds the amount of work, which leads to carelessness and inactivity.



“There is little work and many people. So, want it or not, there must be people who are careless about their work,” said Ny.



Keut Rith of the Justice Ministry said he had assigned secretary of state Chin Malin and Phov Samphy, director-general of judicial administration, to monitor and track the attendance of officials in the judiciary and take legal action against inactive officials.



Chin Malin declined to say how many judicial officials work only one day a month or who work less than half a year.



“It is an internal matter for the ministry,” he said. “Thus, what we have found will not be made public and we will take action and impose internal disciplinary sanctions on inactive and non-compliant officials.”



Meas Ny said measures must be transparent and involve many participants. If measures are confidential, they might only be applied for a while and then the situation will be out of the spotlight again. “It’s like there is a downpour of rain, and then it stops.”



Sek Socheat, a social observer, said the government is always looking for ghost officials or officials who only have names but do not go to work.



These officials do other work to seek benefits or to supplement the family income, he said, noting that the number of officials working actively is small. “This problem for me is not strange because almost all institutions have this problem,” Socheat said.



Yong Kim Eng of the PDP Center called for proper and strict recruitment of civil servants through proper entrance exams without corruption and bribery.



“Some civil servants got in by taking proper exams while some gave  money or had relatives in particular institutions,” said Kim Eng. “This is the problem that creates inactivity in the workplace.”



If corruption, nepotism, and favoritism are still embedded in government recruitment the workflow will be ineffective and unproductive and this culture will continue, he said.



Previously, a personnel management officer at Battambang Provincial Hall accused the provincial hall of favoritism and resigned from the position. Ly Dinory posted his letter of resignation on Facebook saying he was sick of dealing with favoritism in the office after two years of being excluded.



However, Battambang Provincial Governor Sok Lu said Dinory had not been to work regularly for two weeks and had been absent without notifying the unit. Social analysts called for a transparent and thorough investigation into the matter, but the  Interior Ministry declined to investigate the corruption allegation.



Later, Water Resources Minister Lim Kean Hor appointed two of his children as secretary of state and undersecretary of state, sparking a broader debate over Cambodia's pervasive corruption.



Cambodia continues to be Southeast Asia’s most corrupt country, according to the Transparency International’s 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index released on Jan. 25, 2022. Ranked 157 out of 180 countries for 2021, Cambodia’s score marginally improved – creeping up from 160 in 2020.

This was better than North Korea, Afghanistan and Sudan but countries such as Myanmar, Iraq and Russia all scored higher in terms of perceived levels of corrupt


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