The Phnom Penh Post
James O'Toole
Monday, 25 January 2010
THE government has put forth a plan to ease the transition period following the surprise cancellation of salary supplement programmes for civil servants announced last month, though members of the development community said the precise nature of both the transition phase and the government’s long-term goals remains unclear.
In a letter dated Thursday and sent to the UN, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the British and Australian ambassadors, Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon said the move represented “decisive action ... taken to consider both the short- and long-term challenges of motivation and performance in the public sector”.
Under various kinds of salary supplement programmes, donors had been assisting the government in bolstering the often-paltry salaries of civil servants. In recent weeks, some members of the development community have expressed alarm at the proposed revocation of supplements, which they say are essential for maintaining a functioning civil service sector.
Though two supplement schemes – Priority Mission Groups (PMGs) and Merit-Based Performance Incentives (MBPIs) – will remain defunct, Keat Chhon said, straightforward salary supplements will be allowed to continue throughout an interim period during which the government will formulate a new compensation scheme. This interim period is expected to last six months, he added.
Keat Chhon’s most recent letter marked a moderation of the policy he announced in a December 4 letter to World Bank country director Annette Dixon, in which he stated that “in addition to the MBPI and PMG, the termination also applies to the salary supplement and all other such incentives/schemes”. This termination, which was to go into effect January 1, was ordered to maintain fairness in government compensation and spur broader public administrative reform, Keat Chhon told Dixon.
MBPIs and PMGs were implemented in recent years through cooperation between the government and development partners in order to target key projects and promote a culture of meritocracy among civil servants. Under these initiatives, workers received incentives based on their participation in specially designated projects and their attainment of performance goals. These more stringent conditions were not attached to traditional salary supplements, which were distributed as bonuses and in a less targeted manner.
With MBPIs, the government hoped to “retain and attract well-trained staff members” and “facilitate the transfer of technology and expertise from international advisers”, said Hang Chuon Naron, secretary general at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, in a presentation at a 2007 conference hosted by the World Bank.
In Thursday’s letter, however, Keat Chhon said the government hoped to establish a replacement payment system based on a principle he termed “daily operational cost”, though he provided few details on how this new system would work.
“This will replace existing salary supplementations and allowances, and will take account of issues such as equity, motivation, performance and accountability,” Keat Chhon wrote. Money earmarked for MBPIs and PMGs may be distributed in the form of traditional salary supplements during the transitional period, he added.
UN resident coordinator Douglas Broderick had little to say in response to the letter, explaining that his organisation is awaiting further discussion with the government and development partners.
“No one’s had time to analyse this yet,” he said.
ADB spokesman Chantha Kim said the ADB and other development partners are “seeking clarification” on the implications of the letter.
Chan Theary, executive director of the Reproductive and Child Health Alliance, was cautiously optimistic about the decision, calling it preferable to an abrupt termination of all supplements. She cautioned, however, that it remains for the government to take public administration reform beyond the issue of compensation.
“If they said something like that, I hope they will really take a real action,” she said.
Sin Somuny, director of the local health group Medicam, said earlier this month that many civil servants, particularly in rural areas, are likely unaware of the compensation reforms, even as they draw most of their monthly income from various salary supplements.
According to Hang Chuon Naron’s 2007 presentation, MBPIs at the Ministry of Economy and Finance ranged from $50 per month for administrative staff up to $679 per month at the secretary general level.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Australian agro-deal in Cambodia carries risks, rewards - Feature
Mon, 01 Feb 2010
Phnom Penh - As a former finance minister of Australia, Peter Costello is comfortable with large numbers. The latest is his proposal on behalf of an Australian fund to invest 600 million US dollars into at least 100,000 hectares of land concessions in Cambodia. The concessions would see private equity investors pumping money into plantations of teak, palm oil, sugar, rice and bananas. In return, Cambodia would get 150,000 jobs, the government said after Costello met with Deputy Prime Minister Sok An.
Significant investment, plenty of jobs plus the promise of improved agricultural methods? Such a deal should be good for Cambodia on all three counts.
But human rights workers said they worry the country's ongoing problems with corruption and poor governance combined with often-violent land evictions mean it is less certain that ordinary people would benefit.
And as veteran opposition legislator Son Chhay made clear, transparency in investment deals is hardly the order of the day.
Son Chhay has plenty of experience in how the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) operates when it comes to investments. He headed parliament's foreign affairs committee until 2008 but said his deputy, a member of the CPP, regularly prevented him from getting information on deals.
"It's still the case that we are not able to get our hands [on investment documents], and that's a cause for great concern," he said.
In the past two decades, much of rural Cambodia has been carved up into economic land concessions (ELCs). The UN's human rights office released a report three years ago that said 59 large concessions totalling almost 950,000 hectares had been granted to private companies to develop agricultural-industrial plantations.
The report made it clear that the true figure was certainly higher because data on smaller ELCs were not available. What was clear, it concluded, was that the concessions had "adversely affected the human rights and livelihoods of Cambodia's rural communities."
In the intervening three years, government figures showed it has approved 33 more agricultural-industrial projects worth 837 million dollars although they did not indicate how much land is involved. State-to-state deals, however, are not on that list, and Qatar, Kuwait and South Korea have so far expressed interest in, or signed deals for, ELCs.
Human rights workers said risks to the rural poor over such deals are significant because they are regularly evicted to make way for foreign investors. The government's often-brutal approach to evictions and its disregard for its own laws in doing so have raised concerns abroad.
Such government behaviour was one of the items discussed by the UN's special rapporteur on human rights during a recent two-week visit. Surya Subedi asked the government to suspend all land evictions until proper legal safeguards are in place.
The government denied the request, citing the need to develop the country. It told Subedi that national guidelines on evictions were being drafted but did not say when they would appear.
The UN envoy expressed cautious optimism in telling reporters that the UN Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution that requires guidelines be put in place to protect the vulnerable.
"So it is now becoming an international requirement," Subedi said.
One relevant regulation recently approved by Cambodia's parliament was a much-criticized expropriation law. Subedi criticized parts of the law for being far too vague.
"For example, what do we mean by public interest?" he asked. "If land can be acquired in the public interest, how do you define it? Who defines it?"
Acceptable compensation measures for those affected were absent, too, he said.
Those concerns are shared by many in Cambodia, including Son Chhay although he did welcome one of the benefits touted by Costello: new ways of farming to boost production.
The opposition lawmaker said new methods could help 80 per cent of the 14 million people who rely on outdated farming techniques. The country's rice yield of around 3 tons per hectare, for example, is far below that of some of its neighbours.
But the primary motive for Costello's investors is financial. Investors want a return on their money, and the food crisis of 2008 when prices rocketed showed that food can be profitable.
"I think agriculture is going to come back into its own as an investment in the decades that lie ahead, and of course, that's a great opportunity for Cambodia," Costello told the Phnom Penh Post.
For his part, Son Chhay would prefer investment from countries like Australia rather than from Cambodia's more traditional investors, such as China and Vietnam, whose companies, he said, are uninterested in improving local skills.
Yet he insisted that a transparent, corruption-free approach is vital to ensure the Cambodian people benefit from the deal.
"A lot of concessions have caused problems to our farmers and indigenous people who have no knowledge of what is in the contracts," he said.
But he called on Costello to make public the full details of any contract with the government.
"He should act upon his word [to do so]," Son Chhay said. "We would hope that this kind of investment from a society like Australia would be done in a proper manner."
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/306857,australian-agro-deal-in-cambodia-carries-risks-rewards--feature.html
Copyright DPA
Phnom Penh - As a former finance minister of Australia, Peter Costello is comfortable with large numbers. The latest is his proposal on behalf of an Australian fund to invest 600 million US dollars into at least 100,000 hectares of land concessions in Cambodia. The concessions would see private equity investors pumping money into plantations of teak, palm oil, sugar, rice and bananas. In return, Cambodia would get 150,000 jobs, the government said after Costello met with Deputy Prime Minister Sok An.
Significant investment, plenty of jobs plus the promise of improved agricultural methods? Such a deal should be good for Cambodia on all three counts.
But human rights workers said they worry the country's ongoing problems with corruption and poor governance combined with often-violent land evictions mean it is less certain that ordinary people would benefit.
And as veteran opposition legislator Son Chhay made clear, transparency in investment deals is hardly the order of the day.
Son Chhay has plenty of experience in how the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) operates when it comes to investments. He headed parliament's foreign affairs committee until 2008 but said his deputy, a member of the CPP, regularly prevented him from getting information on deals.
"It's still the case that we are not able to get our hands [on investment documents], and that's a cause for great concern," he said.
In the past two decades, much of rural Cambodia has been carved up into economic land concessions (ELCs). The UN's human rights office released a report three years ago that said 59 large concessions totalling almost 950,000 hectares had been granted to private companies to develop agricultural-industrial plantations.
The report made it clear that the true figure was certainly higher because data on smaller ELCs were not available. What was clear, it concluded, was that the concessions had "adversely affected the human rights and livelihoods of Cambodia's rural communities."
In the intervening three years, government figures showed it has approved 33 more agricultural-industrial projects worth 837 million dollars although they did not indicate how much land is involved. State-to-state deals, however, are not on that list, and Qatar, Kuwait and South Korea have so far expressed interest in, or signed deals for, ELCs.
Human rights workers said risks to the rural poor over such deals are significant because they are regularly evicted to make way for foreign investors. The government's often-brutal approach to evictions and its disregard for its own laws in doing so have raised concerns abroad.
Such government behaviour was one of the items discussed by the UN's special rapporteur on human rights during a recent two-week visit. Surya Subedi asked the government to suspend all land evictions until proper legal safeguards are in place.
The government denied the request, citing the need to develop the country. It told Subedi that national guidelines on evictions were being drafted but did not say when they would appear.
The UN envoy expressed cautious optimism in telling reporters that the UN Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution that requires guidelines be put in place to protect the vulnerable.
"So it is now becoming an international requirement," Subedi said.
One relevant regulation recently approved by Cambodia's parliament was a much-criticized expropriation law. Subedi criticized parts of the law for being far too vague.
"For example, what do we mean by public interest?" he asked. "If land can be acquired in the public interest, how do you define it? Who defines it?"
Acceptable compensation measures for those affected were absent, too, he said.
Those concerns are shared by many in Cambodia, including Son Chhay although he did welcome one of the benefits touted by Costello: new ways of farming to boost production.
The opposition lawmaker said new methods could help 80 per cent of the 14 million people who rely on outdated farming techniques. The country's rice yield of around 3 tons per hectare, for example, is far below that of some of its neighbours.
But the primary motive for Costello's investors is financial. Investors want a return on their money, and the food crisis of 2008 when prices rocketed showed that food can be profitable.
"I think agriculture is going to come back into its own as an investment in the decades that lie ahead, and of course, that's a great opportunity for Cambodia," Costello told the Phnom Penh Post.
For his part, Son Chhay would prefer investment from countries like Australia rather than from Cambodia's more traditional investors, such as China and Vietnam, whose companies, he said, are uninterested in improving local skills.
Yet he insisted that a transparent, corruption-free approach is vital to ensure the Cambodian people benefit from the deal.
"A lot of concessions have caused problems to our farmers and indigenous people who have no knowledge of what is in the contracts," he said.
But he called on Costello to make public the full details of any contract with the government.
"He should act upon his word [to do so]," Son Chhay said. "We would hope that this kind of investment from a society like Australia would be done in a proper manner."
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/306857,australian-agro-deal-in-cambodia-carries-risks-rewards--feature.html
Copyright DPA
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