Corrupt officials

A civil society organisation will today begin distributing 10,000 leaflets designed to advise people of how to blow the whistle on corrupt road-tax collectors, an official said yesterday.

San Chey, a network fellow for the Cambodian branch of the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability in East Asia and the Pacific, said the leaflets, to be distributed nationwide, would encourage people to provide information to assist investigations into complaints from drivers, who say they are routinely overcharged by tax collectors from the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

“We do this because there are some tax officials who charge more than the cost of the road tax,” he said.

According to ministry guidelines, he said, motorbike drivers should be charged between 3,000 and 4,500 riels (US$0.70 to $1.05) in road taxes each year.

He said that in the last week alone, he had recieved at least 15 complaints from motorbike-taxi drivers who claim to have been charged too much by tax officials.

Ministry officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.