Subordinate staff who get married, give birth, or die will receive a one-off payment of one million riel ($1,250) – up from three million riel. hean rangsey
With effect from January 1, subordinate staff in the Ministry of Environment who get married, give birth, or die will receive a one-off payment of five million riel ($1,250) – up from three million riel previously.
The announcement dated December 17 said the funds for the payments would come from the ministry’s Environment and Social Fund.
However, the budget would be managed by the Cambodian Women’s Association for Peace and Development, which has a branch housed on the ministry’s premises and is an implementer of the ministry’s civil servant protection policy.
“The policy was made to contribute to improving the living conditions of civil servants working for the Ministry of Environment,” the ministry said.
Its secretary of state and spokesman Neth Pheaktra told The Post on Wednesday that the funding allowance was revised from three million riel last year under the policy framework of the ministry’s civil servant protection policy.
He said the government paid a lot of attention to providing funding for the well-being of civil servants as well as to encourage and support them as gratitude for their sacrifices towards the national wellbeing of the Kingdom and its people.
“So far, many civil servants have benefited from the ministry’s civil servant protection policy. But I don’t have the latest data on this. Funding to implement this policy comes from the ministry’s Environment and Social Fund.”
The Ministry of Economy and Finance’s circular on incentive principles and procedures for public service delivery 2013, said ministries and government institutions can accumulate funds to pay the incentives by deducting a portion of the revenue raised through fulfilling management duties, providing public services, and issuing fines.
The circular said funds that are withheld in this manner can be considered as an advance paid by the national budget.
It will be kept as regular non-contract and non-fiscal revenue, and can also be used to strengthen revenue collection mechanisms for those ministries and institutions.
Ministry of Civil Service undersecretary of state Chut Monny told The Post on Wednesday that his ministry supported policies that offer incentives to civil servants, especially pregnant women, as it did not violate Cambodian law.
He said what was important was that the government took care of civil servants working at the relevant ministries and could motivate them to work harder by offering better incentives.
“The basic principle is that each minister decides on the incentive, which is a bonus allocated from the ministry’s revenue and given to officials who have worked hard to collect it for the state.
“For example, a particular ministry earns a lot of revenue, and then it uses a part of it to provide incentives to its officials. There is nothing wrong with that,” Monny said.
He said the Ministry of Environment’s current policy reveals that it earns various types of revenue and so it is now paying more attention to its officials who have been given extra incentives in addition to government allowances.
Monny said: “Other ministries can do this too. The leadership is just being smart. Besides, it is also in line with policies to assist women and provide them with social protection. It’s good if all ministries can do this, but we cannot force it upon them.”
