[Australian] Envoy calls for sustained focus on tackling corruption in Cambodia

Dr. Penny Richards, Australian ambassador to Cambodia

Updated 18 September 2012,

Radio Australia

It may still be one of the poorest countries in the region, but Cambodia is enjoying a steady growth rate and it's being seen as one of ASEAN's rapidly emerging economies.

Envoy calls for sustained focus on tackling corruption in Cambodia (Credit: ABC) 

But the Australian government admits that corruption is still a problem that needs to be addressed, along with the country's dependence on foreign aid, as the ghosts of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime still linger.

Correspondent: Auskar Subakti

Speaker: Penny Richards, Australia's ambassador to Cambodia

RICHARDS: Cambodia has a lot of potential for its economic development. It also has some problems which it must overcome and challenges to meet. Basically it's had extraordinarily good economic growth with the exception of a short period around the global financial crisis, the economy's been growing at 5 to 6 per cent per annum. It's in a very good neighbourhood economists will tell you surrounded by rapidly growing countries in ASEAN and as ASEAN works to put together its economic community with a target date of 2015, as connectivity projects progress and are implemented, then I think there's a good bright future for Cambodia's economy.

As I mentioned, there are some challenges. The government has recognised corruption as an impediment to foreign investment. It's passed an anti-corruption law, it has an anti-corruption unit and the government needs to continue to put efforts into beating corruption. Cambodia has a large amount of aid to help it run its economy and it will also be a challenge for the government to think overtime how does it increase its own revenue base and gradually become sustainable without continuing large aid inflows.

SURBAKTI: And are you confident that Australian aid money is being used wisely in Cambodia, given the fact that the government itself has admitted that corruption is a problem? Are you concerned at all that the money might be misused?

RICHARDS: Making sure our money is spent wisely and not fraudulently is a huge focus for the Australian aid program and a lot of planning and effort is put into designing programs where the opportunities for corruption are small or limited. There's constant monitoring and evaluation to track where the monies are going and how the monies are being spent. And if we do find any evidence that monies not being properly spent, then we address it promptly.

SURBAKTI: Last week, we heard the news that one of the former senior figures of the Khmer Rouge Ieng Thirith has been deemed unfit for trial. What's your view on the effectiveness of the tribunal, do you think it is necessary or is it more a toothless Tiger, given that a lot of these people who are facing this tribunal are elderly and a lot of them may not even be punished?

RICHARDS: The Khmer Rouge tribunal or the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts in Cambodia as it's formerly known is an incredibly important institution. It's currently trying the most senior and surviving members of the Khmer Rouge for crimes of mass atrocity, crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide, other crimes and I think historically I think it's very important that the message be got out that you can't get away with that kind of crime anymore. I think it's also important from the point of view of the Cambodian people and their history, reconciling themselves to their history and there's been an incredible amount of good research done to document this period, which I think will stand the country in good stead.

I also think another very important role of that tribunal is demonstrating international best practice and passing on some of those ways of making judgements, making decisions, through to the Cambodian National Court, because as you probably know it's a hybrid court. Half the lawyers are international and half the lawyers are Cambodian, so we hope that there's a real legacy affect in stimulating some of the national courts and national judges to take on this international best practice.

SURBAKTI: A senior official has recently complained I guess that the tribunal has no money. It's starved of funds and it doesn't see its operation being viable without increased support from the international community. What's Australia's role in helping to fund this and do you think it is worth funding?

RICHARDS: To answer your second question first. It's most definitely worth funding. It's a very important priority and Australia's Foreign Minister, Senator Bob Carr, has said as much during his visit to Cambodia in March this year. In terms of funding, unlike some of the other international courts which have mandatory contributions to the United Nations, this one is assessed through voluntary contributions and that's the reason why some of the funding has been uneven and a little bit uncertain into the future.

As I said, Australia's been a very strong supporter of the court and after Japan, we're the second largest international funder. This year, we've announced two donations to both the international and national sides of the court and our current funding is more than 19 million dollars.

We are also calling on other nations to step up and make their own contribution, because as I said, the work of the tribunal is so important that we cannot let it fail.

SURBAKTI: I understand there have been calls for Australia to pay its dues or pay its pledge contributions so that this tribunal can keep going?

RICHARDS: It's all paid.

SURBAKTI: When did that happen?

RICHARDS: That happened in August.

SURBAKTI: If I could draw your attention to a major scheme that Australia is heavily involved with and that's the Cambodian Rail Line Redevelopment Project. We've reported that many poor people living along the railway tracks have had to be relocated and some of them have been made worse off. Are you aware of these reports and what's being done about it?

RICHARDS: Yes indeed. As you mentioned, a number of people who've been living either by the tracks or literally on top of the tracks will need to be resettled. I think there's about 4,000 households which are affected in some way and about 1,000 of those households will be resettled. In fact, I think about three quarters of them already have been resettled. It's a complicated project and there have been some hiccups. For example, when people move to resettlement sites, there needs to be electricity, there needs to be water sources. They've been some issues in those services being late. There've also been issues about whether the level of compensation is correct and there's also issues about when people move, do they still have ways of making their livelihood, given that they'll be in a different district and may not be able to carry on the same kind of businesses.

The Cambodian government, the Asian Development Bank and Ausaid have all recognised the complexities and that some of this hasn't been going as smoothly as we had wanted. So all three parties have put a lot more energy and resources into managing the process.

For Australia's part, we've done a lot more monitoring of what's happening, we've contributed to public outreach, so that the communities affected understand better what the conditions are, whose eligible for resettlement assistance and so on. So it's a process that has been not without challenges, but I think all three partners are determined to face this head on and to make it work.

SURBAKTI: Are you confident in the Cambodian Government itself? Is it a partner that the Australian government can safely work hand-in-hand with?

RICHARDS: The Cambodian Government's very focused on poverty alleviation and whilst there's still a lot of poor people in Cambodia, there's a very good track record. The poverty level was previously 40 per cent . It's now down to 25 per cent, so you'd have to say that's a very worthwhile trajectory and something that we should keep supporting.