Sons of ACU President Given Top Jobs

 

Two sons of Anti-Corruption Unit president Om Yentieng were among the 18 officials newly appointed to the controversial agency over the weekend, according to a royal decree signed on Saturday and obtained yesterday.
 

Yentieng Puthyrith was appointed secretary of state and his younger brother Yentieng Puthira was appointed undersecretary state of the agency. The appointments were made despite a ban on nepotism within the agency that took effect in March 2014.
Other officials were appointed to positions equivalent of ministers and general directors.
 

San Chey, chairman of the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability (Cambodia), said the appointment of Mr. Yeniteng’s sons to the agency would cost it credibility.
 

“The ACU is meant to be a transparent organization, but with these new appointments I don’t know how that can be,” Mr. Chey said.
 

He expressed concern that other staff at the agency may be reluctant to criticize the president’s sons out of fear of retribution.
 

Mr. Chey has sopken out against nepotism within the government before.
 

On October 21, 2014, he sent a letter to Leng Peng Long, general secretary of the National Assembly, asking him to provide a list of officials working in the general secretariat of the National Assembly. He also asked for a detailed explanation of how staff management worked and for an account of expenditures.  
 

In the letter Mr. Chey said that Mit Karen, general secretary of the National Assembly, who had been general director of administration and finance, had assigned relatives to key positions within the National Assembly.
 

Mr. Karen’s daughter and son-in-law worked in the general department of administration and finance, while his son and his nephew worked as president of the department of internal audit and president of the second audit office respectively. Two other in laws of Mr. Karen and the child of another in law had been placed in senior posts in the staffing department where they managed the salaries of lawmakers, the letter said.
 

The government did not respond to Mr. Chey’s letter.
 

The ACU declined requests for comment yesterday.