International donors to Cambodia Monday voiced disappointment over the government's failure to pass anti-corruption laws, according to an official.
The announcement follows the 9th meeting of the Government Donor Coordination Committee (GDCC), attended by high-ranking Cambodian officials and foreign diplomats.
In the meeting, Australia Ambassador to Cambodia, Lisa Filipetto states that the government reform council seems “to lack the will to combat corruption in Cambodia”. As for Yvon Roe D’Alber, France Ambassador to Cambodia says that foreign donors has noted Cambodia’s failure to form appropriate law that governs its judicial system and the Supreme Council of the Magistracy.
While, U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia, Joseph Mussomeli agrees with the foreign diplomats, he also pushes for the enactment of anti-corruption law that abides to international standards.
The law has been proposed for more than a decade, but as Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon explains, "the law is still under review by the government’s top legal experts".
The government has promised to put the law in place by the end of last year, but failed to meet the deadline. Cambodia's donors have made tackling corruption the focus of their reform efforts, since they have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to the government's willingness to clean up the country’s corruption.