Logo of Phnom Penh Post newspaper Phnom Penh Post - Civil servant wages under new ministry

Civil servant wages under new ministry

Civil servant wages under new ministry

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday outlined the role of the newly christened Ministry of Public Function, explaining that the body would oversee the reform of the Kingdom’s civil service, including the salaries of its employees – a major plank in the opposition’s campaign platform.

As a part of a more than six-hour address, the premier promised that the new ministry would increase the Cambodian bureaucracy’s efficiency by making it prompter, easier to deal with and more receptive to criticism from both citizens and the media, though the opposition maintained yesterday that anything less than a cultural shift in government was unlikely to yield results.

At times consulting with new Minister of Public Function Pich Bunthin, Hun Sen mandated that civil servants be promoted every three years, describing as untenable the current system in which bureaucrats sometimes languish in low-level positions indefinitely.

“Some are at the A1 level for 13 years and have not been promoted,” he said. “Some have retired but were not promoted.”

Raising bureaucrats’ pay – an issue that the Cambodia National Rescue Party pushed hard in the build-up to the July elections – also took a place of prominence in the remarks on the new ministry. Without offering details, Hun Sen said that salary reform would take place from 2015 to 2018, and that the government was experimenting with direct-deposit payment schemes intended to improve transparency and prevent kickbacks demanded by supervisors.

Despite the opposition’s vocal support of civil servant reforms and salary increases, CNRP chief whip Son Chhay said yesterday that the new ministry was “a waste of time and state money, because it is not going to work”.

“All the institutions [here] are so weak, and only a few people have centralised power in themselves,” he said. “Any new institution that is created doesn’t have the power or ability to perform.”

MOST VIEWED

  • Wing Bank opens new branch in front of Orkide The Royal along Street 2004

    Wing Bank celebrates first anniversary as commercial bank with launch of brand-new branch. One year since officially launching with a commercial banking licence, Wing Bank on March 14 launched a new branch in front of Orkide The Royal along Street 2004. The launch was presided over by

  • Girl from Stung Meanchey dump now college grad living in Australia

    After finishing her foundational studies at Trinity College and earning a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Melbourne in 2022, Ron Sophy, a girl who once lived at the Stung Meanchey garbage dump and scavenged for things to sell, is now working at a private

  • Rare plant fetches high prices from Thai, Chinese

    Many types of plants found in Cambodia are used as traditional herbs to treat various diseases, such as giloy or guduchi (Tinospora cordifolia) or aromatic/sand ginger (Kaempferia galangal) or rough cocklebur (Xanthium Strumartium). There is also a plant called coral, which is rarely grown

  • Ministry using ChatGPT AI to ‘ease workload’; Khmer version planned

    The Digital Government Committee is planning to make a Khmer language version of popular artificial intelligence (AI) technology ChatGPT available to the public in the near future, following extensive testing. On March 9, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications revealed that it has been using the

  • Cambodia returns 15M Covid jabs to China

    Prime Minister Hun Sen said Cambodia will return 15 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to China for donation to other countries. The vaccines in question were ordered but had not yet arrived in Cambodia. While presiding over the Ministry of Health’s annual meeting held on

  • Wat Phnom hornbills attract tourists, locals

    Thanks to the arrival of a friendly flock of great hornbills, Hour Rithy, a former aviculturist – or raiser of birds – in Kratie province turned Phnom Penh tuk tuk driver, has seen a partial return to his former profession. He has become something of a guide