Anti-corruption

The Education Ministry’s bid to rid the grade 12 national exam of cheating and bribery was hailed a success after the first day of testing Monday, with officials reporting only a few attempted cheats and no corrupted proctors. Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron, who spent ...

About 93,456 Cambodian high school students on Monday took the annual national high school graduation exams, which is a prerequisite for students to pursue their studies in a university level. “A total of 93,456 high school students are taking the exams at 154 centers with 3,779 ...

Three reporters and a publisher were arrested in two separate cases of attempted extortion in Stung Treng and Kratie provinces on Sunday after stopping vehicles suspected of carrying illegally logged timber, according to local authorities. Mom Mon, 54, and Kim Noeun, 28, reporters for the Sangkum Khmer and ...

In case cramming for an exam that determines high school graduation and college placement wasn’t stressful enough, grade 12 test-takers will now have to do so under the scrutiny of independent observers tasked with manning every exam-room window. As part of a slew of reforms to ...

More than 2,000 volunteers will be deployed to observe students taking the national exam in August, the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) said Monday, with the deadline for registration expiring Tuesday. More than 93,000 students are registered to sit the August 4 to 5 exam at 154 exam ...

The Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) on Wednesday posted to its website a four-page document giving Public Works and Transport Minister Tram Iv Tek’s response to complaints of corruption within his ministry, including that the minister had awarded himself exorbitant bonuses. The ACU said in the document that ...

Transparency International (TI) Cambodia on Wednesday announced it would not be dispatching observers to independently monitor the National High School Exams on August 4 and 5 after the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) and Education Ministry said they would not allow reserve observers at exam halls. TI says ...

Residents of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood lodged a formal complaint with the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) on Monday, asking it to investigate 12 current and former government officials and Senator Lao Meng Khin over the senator’s plans to sell land they say was stolen from ...

A member of Interior Minister Sar Kheng’s cabinet was on Tuesday sentenced to one year in jail for fraud after he was found guilty of accepting $38,000 in 2011 from a Taiwanese-Canadian national in exchange for citizenship documents that were never delivered. ...

Representatives of fishing communities say illegal operations are critically threatening the nation’s fisheries. Corruption and collusion between authorities and illegal fishermen are at the root of the problem, they say. More than 100 representatives from these communities met in Phnom Penh Friday, in an effort to find ...

Greg Thomas Fryett, a British businessman arrested by the Anti-Corruption Unit last year for alleged links to a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, went on trial on Friday at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. ...

On the side of a well-trafficked street in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district, a man with a razor blade bends over a small rectangle of sheet metal overlaid with a vinyl stencil. As letters and numbers are lifted away, the plate begins to take on a ...

Cambodian Commerce Minister Sun Chanthol concluded a trade mission in the United States this week, emphasizing his government’s willingness to make “deep” reforms to improve its investment climate. Cambodia meanwhile needs more foreign investment to create jobs for the 300,000 young Cambodians who enter the ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday heard the case of a member of Interior Minister Sar Kheng’s cabinet who was charged with fraud for accepting $38,000 from the representative of a Taiwanese national in exchange for citizenship documents that were never delivered. Suong Veasna, a ...

The activist Independent Monk Network has called on the Ministry of Cult and Religion to release paperwork proving that an agreement it struck with NagaCorp to help construct an electricity substation at Phnom Penh’s Buddhist Institute does not involve the selling of any of the ...

A high-level agricultural official in Kampong Speu province has been charged with stealing thousands of dollars from paddy rice farmers after promising to deliver them land titles in January 2013, a rights group representative and a court prosecutor said yesterday. Cher Pich, 44, deputy director of ...

The Anti-Corruption Unit revealed Monday that the director of Kompong Cham provincial Treasury Department Kol Thearin and officials under her are being investigated for allegedly embezzling money from local development projects and extorting bribes from developers, according to a statement from the ACU. ACU chairman Om ...

Hun Many, the youngest son of Prime Minister Hun Sen and an elected lawmaker in Kampong Speu province, has defended his party against allegations of nepotism, corruption and election irregularities in a foreign TV interview. In a wide-ranging Channel News Asia interview that aired on Friday, ...

A Ministry of Labour official yesterday vowed to go after any of his “corrupt” colleagues that deal with the garment and footwear sector, and urged workers to file complaints about substandard working conditions. ...

A village chief and security guard in Kompong Chhnang province have denied allegations that they duped villagers out of a 270-hectare social land concession, the Anti-Corruption Unit said Wednesday. The pair also denied clearing a separate 600 hectares of forestland in the province to sell to ...

The former director of the Preah Vihear provincial financial department has denied allegations that he embezzled an estimated $72,045 over the course of 2013, according to his defense posted on the Anti-Corruption Unit website Thursday. Meas Rathavuth, who was ordered into retirement on March 1, said ...

A new payment system for retired soldiers in Oddar Meanchey province has resulted in late payments for nearly 50 retirees. Government officials recently opened Acleda Bank accounts for retired soldiers, who used to pick up pension payments at the provincial social affairs department, said Mok Vanvuthy, ...

More than 200 people from the group Land Communities for Peace marched from the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) to the National Assembly on Thursday in defiance of a ban issued by City Hall. Phnom Penh deputy governor Khuong Sreng said the protest would not be allowed after ...

More than 1,500 villagers plan to march to the Anti-Corruption Unit and National Assembly in Phnom Penh on Thursday in defiance of a fresh ban issued by City Hall prohibiting them from doing so. The villagers form a group known as the Land Communities for Peace ...