Anti-corruption law and corruption in public sector
More than 10 years of draft anti-corruption law was made since 1994 in order to meet International Standard. Until now, anti-corruption law has still not been approved by National Assembly yet. The Law is being modified under control of ministry of National Assembly, Senate Relation and Inspection. By the way, government pledged CG meeting to pass the anti-corruption law by 2005.
World Bank’s seven projects were found to be involved with corruption-four current projects and three that had been completed. Wold Bank’s website posted that “The government has taken immediate action and suspended disbursements on three of the current projects in order to limit the damage.”
Corruption in Cambodia mostly happened in Customs, police and court department. The experience of curbing corruption in Hong Kong and Singapore,During colonial period, The British relied on the Police to curb corruption but its method of anti-corruption failed. It was found that corruption was widespread among those policemen involved in protection rackets. Thus, Hong Kong and Singapore have taken 15 years (1937-1952) and 26 years (1940-1974) respectively.
To combat corruption effectively in a country, having comprehensive anti-corruption legislation is an important prerequisite. Apart from defining explicitly the meaning and different form of corruption, the Director and officials of the anti-corruption agency responsible for implementation.
Prime Minister Hun Sen announced in March 2005 to reform judicial system and to arrest corrupt judges and prosecutors.
Center for Social Development (CSD) conducted the first-ever study on corruption entitled “National Survey on Public Attitudes Towards Corruption” in 1998. The result of study indicated that a larg number of Cambodians believed that corruption was a normal way of doing business, yet over half of Cambodians surveyed did not feel that corruption made things run more smoothly.
In 1999, World Bank did research entitled “Cambodia- Governance and Corruption Diagnostic: Evidence from Citizen, Enterprise and Public official Surveys”. The findings were shown that the quality of several public services was perceived as relatively poor and public corruption was perceived as a leading problem for corruption and enterprise.
It’s believed that to fight corruption in Cambodia public pressure through awareness and support is essential.
The Royal Government of Cambodia has outlined its strategy to fight corruption in two documents: “The rectangular Strategy and The National Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper”. The strategies view corruption as a threat, not only to democratic institutions, and fundamental rights and freedoms, but also as a source that undermines socio-economic development.
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Corruption is like a cancerous disease that is taking time to wipe out. There’s no instant cure for that and requires extreme wills and power to do that.
Should the anti-corruption law passed then it should apply to all side involved - the person who is taking bribe and the person who is bribing.