BEST PRACTICES IN ANTI-CORRUPTION IN THE KINGDOM OFCAMBODIA: PREVENTION OF CORRUPTION IN HIGH SCHOOL EXAMS
Sothimon Nuon* and Senarong Tan†

I. ANTI-CORRUPTION UNIT
A. Background
The Royal Government of Cambodia first established the Unit Against Corrupt Practices on27 October 1999, and later on the Unit was restructured and renamed the Anti-Corruption Uniton 22 August 2006 under the supervision of the Office of the Council of Ministers. On 17 April
2010, the first Anti-Corruption Law was promulgated and the Anti-Corruption Institution wasestablished.
B. Anti-Corruption Institution
The Anti-Corruption Institution is composed of two bodies: the National Council Against
Corruption and the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU). The ACU is the operating body under which
there are two general departments, each of which is composed of four departments. At present,
the ACU is only located in the capital, Phnom Penh. By law, anti-corruption office branches may
be established in the provinces.
*The National Council Against Corruption has the following main duties:- Set anti-corruption strategies and policies- Provide opinions and recommendations for the ACU- Monitor the work of the ACU- Receive oral and written monthly work reports by the ACU- Make reports on the anti-corruption work to the Prime Minister.
*The Anti-Corruption Unit has the following main duties:- To work independently and serve as the operating body against corruption- The only competent authority to investigate all forms of corruption- Create an action plan against corruption in line with the strategy and policy of theNational Council Against Corruption- Lead the work of prevention and fighting corruption- Keep confidential all information sources related to corruption (in principle, it isbetter to lose a case than to break confidentiality)- Take appropriate measures to protect individuals who provide information related tocorruption.

*†Deputy Director General, General Department Operations, Anti-Corruption Unit, Cambodia.
Prosecutor, General Prosecution’s Department, Attached to Court of Appeal, Cambodia.

- 51 -C. Rights and Investigative Power of the ACU- ACU officials are empowered as Judicial Police Officers- Investigate all kinds of corruption and other offences involving facts related to thecorruption being investigated.
- Investigate other offences as ordered by a court- The President of the ACU or his representative is empowered to lead and coordinate themission of corruption investigation in the name of the prosecution to the point of thearrest of suspects- After the arrest, the prosecution plays the role as stipulated in the provisions of theCriminal Procedure Code- Once the investigation is completed, the ACU shall refer all investigation work to theprosecution for further action in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal
Procedure Code- If there are sufficient corruption leads, the ACU is empowered to:Check and observe bank accounts and other similar accounts
Check and order the provision or copying of authentic documents or individual
documents, or all banking, financial and commercial-related documents
Monitor, oversee, eavesdrop, record sound, take photos, and engage in phone
tapping
Check documents, including those stored in an electronic system
Conduct operations aimed at collecting flagrant evidence

The above measures will not be considered as violations of professional secrets. Banksecrecy is not sufficient justification for failing to provide evidence related to corruption offences
under the provisions of the Anti-Corruption Law.
-The court shall quickly start the trial of corruption cases
Request relevant authorities to suspend the work of individuals for whom sufficientevidence of corruption has been found
Request the competent authority to extradite suspects who abscond abroad
Request the Royal Government to order the General Prosecutor of the Appeals Court or
the Prosecutor of a municipal or provincial court to freeze the assets of individuals who
commit corruption offences.
Detain suspects at any convenient place in addition to the ACU detention rooms orrequest the competent authority to take custody of the suspect.

D. Mechanism to Deal with Complaints- The ACU has not set any form of making complaints. The public can lodge complaints
in any form.
- The ACU accepts all kinds of complaints, anonymous or identified, related to corruption- All complaints go through the complaint office- Some particular complaints, urgent or special, may go directly to the ACU President- All complaints received shall be submitted the next day at the Analysis Meeting(Breakfast Meeting) every morning.

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-Complainants or representatives are invited on a voluntary basis to take part in theAnalysis Meeting.

E. Asset and Liability Declaration Regime- Members of the Senate, the National Assembly and the Royal Government- Armed forces, police officers (rank of colonel), civil servants (rank of department
director)- Judges, prosecutors, notaries public, clerks and bailiffs- All ACU staff and leaders
The declaration shall be made every two years, 30 days after taking office and 30 days
before leaving office. In case the declaration cannot be made before leaving office due todismissal, the declaration shall be made 30 days after the dismissal.
F. Disciplinary and Internal Control Board- ACU staff may not dine out without giving notice or permission from the ACU
President and Chairman of the Disciplinary and Internal Control Board (except familydining)- No need to report in case of dining out between ACU staff but payment shall be equallyshared or the higher ranking person must bear the payment.
- A gift worth more than 25 dollars shall not be accepted but, if received, must bereported to the President and the Chairman of the Board- Gifts not accepted shall also be reported.
G. Internal Investigation Section
This section is under the supervision of the President of the ACU and is entrusted with thework of overseeing and monitoring the work and activities of all ACU staff to spot irregularities.
II. OBSERVATION OF HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION EXAMS
A. Background
In Cambodia, general education ends at grade 12 where students must pass a strict exam
before they start university. The ACU started to cooperate with the the Ministry of Education,
Youth and Sports to observe high school exams since 2014. The exam takes place in all 25
provinces and the capital.
1.

Work Procedures
The national high school exam for academic year 2018 took place from 20-21 August with a
total number of 117,062 candidates. There are 196 exam centres including 4,718 rooms
throughout the country. As the ACU office is only located in the capital, Phnom Penh, and has asmall number of staff, volunteers are invited to take part in the observation along with the ACUstaff. The ACU staff lead the observation work. The volunteers include university students, civilservants, monks, civil society organizations, foreigners etc. who need to perform the work inaccordance with the law and regulations.

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In principle, one exam room needs one volunteer to do the observation, and one exam centre
needs one ACU official to take charge of the observation.
For this academic year 2018 there were 4,718 volunteers plus some reserve volunteers. 196
ACU staff members have been deployed to all 196 exam centres throughout the country plus two
ACU leaders who are responsible for overseeing the observation work in each province.
2.

Conditions and Benefits for Volunteers
All volunteers are responsible for their own expenses during the observation work, and they
may not have any conflict of interest (no relatives sitting for exam at the exam centre they workfor). Meanwhile, the volunteers must go through an orientation training course before theirobservation work starts. As benefits, volunteers are provided with appreciation certificates and abanquet after the observation work.
3.

Rights, Privileges and Duties of Volunteers
Volunteers are entitled to use phones and recording instruments within the exam centre whileother people, such as invigilators (exam supervisors), are not allowed to use them. Moreover,they can move freely in the exam centre and enter the exam room in case of flagrant corruption.
Volunteers are to take notes and report irregularities to the competent agents, especially the ACU
officials at the centre. Finally, they have to make an evaluation of the process of the exam.
B. Observation (During Exam, Paper Marking and Result Announcement)
1. During the Exam
The volunteers observe all kinds of irregularities occurring outside and inside the exam
centre and inside the exam room, for example, cheating or circulating answers. If there is any
irregularity, they shall report it to the right people for proper action. The observation of the exam
room is to ensure there is no cheating.
2.

Marking Process
During the marking process, volunteers are not invited to take part, as at this stage fewer
people are needed to observe. The ACU officials take sole responsibility for the observation. Weobserve the exam paper coding, the sealing of exam papers and rooms. We also observe theopening of the sealed exam papers and rooms. For the observation of the performance of themarking of exams by teachers, one ACU official is needed to observe each teacher marking
exams, standing side by side (verifying the answer keys and the marking). And to makeeverything more secure, CCTV is installed to monitor the marking process.
3.

Computerizing of Marks
At this stage people are computerizing the candidates’ marks. To make everything runsmoothly, the ACU officials observe the computerized marking process in case there are any
marking errors on the paper and or on the computer. At the end of each marking session, theACU also observes the opening and closing of the sealed marking rooms.
4.

Announcement of Results
Before the exam results are officially released by the Ministry of Education, Youth andSport, the ACU officials engage in last minute cooperation by verifying the marks on the- 54 -computer with the marks on the result list of candidates to make sure the right marks arerecorded for the right person.
III. AN ACTUAL CORRUPTION CASE
A. Factual Summary (2 June 2014)
This case is related to a government official who was working in the Ministry of Post andTelecommunication. In his position as a Secretary General, he was collecting one hundred
thousand US dollars from the Ministry account. This amount of money was deposited by theCambodia Advance Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (CADCOMMS), which is operating its
business in Cambodia. The Ministry of Post and Telecommunication had requested the AntiCorruption Unit to conduct an investigation into the disappearance of this amount of money. TheAnti-Corruption Unit found that a large amount of money in a closed envelope was collected by
the Secretary General, and the ACU also found more of his assets which he had not declared
truthfully to the ACU. On 10 October 2014, he was found guilty and convicted by the Phnom
Penh Municipal Court. He was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment and a fine of 200,000 US
dollars. 500,000 US dollars were confiscated from his account.
B. Court Judgment
On 17 November 2014, this case file was appealed by the accused, and the Court of Appeals
upheld the verdict of the lower court. In July 2016, the Supreme Court affirmed the decision of
the Court of Appeals. Currently, he is serving his sentence in the Phnom Penh Correctional
Center.
IV. CONCLUSION
Since our taking part in the observation of high school exams in 2014, one can see theimprovement in the quality of the students, as they dedicate more time to their studies. This newtrend has drawn support from parents and the society as a whole and from the students
themselves. In the past, students took risks bringing along copies and other related documents,
but now one can see only a very few among 1,000 try unsuccessfully to take risks. The reform
not only encourages grade 12 students to work hard but also students at all levels including grade
1. The ACU does not only engage in the observation of grade 12 exams but also exams forjudges, clerks, lawyers, civil servants, bidding, etc., which, as a result, has led to the same
remarkable achievements obtained as for high school exams.

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