A working group tasked with addressing comments and requests on Minister of Interior Sar Kheng’s Facebook page has revealed that in July and August, it received 337 opinions and requests. Of the number, 68 had been resolved and 180 are in the process of being resolved.

Head of the working group Chea Sokunthea told The Post on Sunday that the comments, which were sent by people from the capital and provinces, consisted of security and order disputes and land issues.

“Concerning land disputes, we sent them to the relevant local authorities for solutions as they are difficult to resolve. But we resolved the cases of security and order in a timely manner and saw good results,” he said.

He said the working group had not resolved the land disputes because solutions would be based on the local authorities at the dispute locations.

“Our working group has taken comments by people on the Facebook page of Samdech Krolahom [Sar Kheng] and reported them to him. Then, Samdech sends the comments to specialists for them to relay them to the authorities in the capital and provinces for a solution to the disputes,” he said.

He said some of the cases included criminal offences, and for those, the working group followed legal procedures.

A report summing up the comments and requests showed that in July, 191 Facebook users left comments on Sar Kheng’s page. Of the number, 31 were resolved and 71 were being resolved.

In August, the working group received 146 messages. It had resolved and responded to 37 of them and is currently resolving 109 complaints.

On July 22, Sar Kheng set up a working group consisting of a head, a deputy head and 11 members to monitor and resolve requests on his Facebook page for intervention. He assigned Sokunthea, the deputy secretary-general of the ministry’s General Secretariat to lead the group.

Soeng Sen Karuna, the senior investigator for rights group Adhoc, regarded it as fortunate for the leaders and citizens if the country is run in a transparent and accountable manner.

“Having received the comments and requests from citizens, the working group must figure out [how to solve them] because citizens who encounter problems always wait for solutions.

“So, [the working group] should not just get information and make solutions as requested, it has to examine priority problems. An inter-ministerial working group conducts research into those problems to find a timely solution,” he said.

Sar Kheng complimented the working group for its achievements in a September 17 Facebook post.

“I highly appreciate the responsible cooperation of the leader [of the working group] and officials of units under the Ministry of Interior, as well as relevant institutions at the national and sub-national levels, for responding to the comments, concerns and requests of the public along with my Facebook team to serve the interests of citizens,” he said.