Court Charges Official With Corruption Over Pension Scandal
The Kompong Cham Provincial Court on Saturday charged the chief of Srei Santhor district’s social affairs office with corruption following his arrest by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) on Friday for withholding pensions and other bonuses from retired teachers, a court official said Tuesday. Provincial court deputy prosecutor Plang Sophal said that Mang You Sreng was charged with corruption, forging government documents and using those documents for his personal gain. “I charged him on three counts …which are punishable by many years in prison,” Mr. Sophal said, adding that Mr. You Sreng is currently in pretrial detention at the provincial prison. On Monday, the ACU posted a statement on its website accusing social affairs officials in Srei Santhor of failing to distribute pensions to retired teachers in the district for March last year, and likewise withholding a $5-per-month “living bonus” from the teachers for the entirety of 2010. … Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Union, welcomed Mr. You Sreng’s arrest, but said the case was yet another example of the ACU targeting low-level bureaucrats while ignoring malfeasance by senior officials. … In July that year, then-Finance Minister Keat Chhon wrote to then-Social Affairs Minister Ith Sam Heng informing him that the ACU found that social affairs officials had embezzled nearly $5.5 million through falsified budgets and pensions collected in the names of “ghost” veterans. No one has ever been held accountable for the crime. …
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-charges-official-with-corruption-over-pension-scandal-47381/
