Anti-corruption

Minister of Information and Cambodian People’s Party member Khieu Kanharith on Friday defended his party’s decision not to join six others in signing a Transparency International pledge to fight corruption on Wednesday.

At a press conference convened Friday, Kanharith said the CPP had already signed an anti-corruption memorandum of understanding with the Anti-Corruption Unit in 2012 and therefore had no need to sign TI’s pledge.

“We did not sign a pledge just to look good and instead are working to implement the fight against corruption,” Kanharith said.

He called TI’s criticism of the CPP’s failure to sign “confusing for the public” and added that “in fact, the CPP not only signed an MoU with the ACU but also with the UN and with other Southeast Asian countries”.

Of the eight political parties registered for the upcoming national election, only the CPP and the Cambodian Nationality Party did not sign the TI pledge.