Ministry Official Arrested for Taking Bribes From Company

by Khuon Narim | April 2, 2016

A bureau chief at the Foreign Affairs Ministry will face court this weekend after being arrested by the government’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) on Thursday for taking bribes to process paperwork for a foreign company, according to officials.

The allegations were laid out in an internal ministry memo obtained Friday.

“Please, leaders and all officials, do not be surprised about a case in which the Anti-Corruption Unit arrested an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 31, 2016, in the morning. There is clear evidence of taking money from a foreign company for stamping documents—not involving the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” read the memo, which is signed by Foreign Minister Hor Namhong.

“The Anti-Corruption Unit is continuing to investigate this issue,” it continued. “Please, leaders and all officials, be calm and continue your work in the spirit of responsibility.”

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I wonder if the foreign company representatives who paid the bribes will also be arrested?

PSD-Kiwi wrote:I wonder if the foreign company representatives who paid the bribes will also be arrested?

of course not, they will be taken in for questioning then they would be "fined", press release would say that they didnt know it was a bribe, they thought it was just routine admin fee, few months later the officials would call them up again saying that court case is now proceeding and they need to pay more admin fees for the court case, and this would continue until the foreign company gives up and leave the country.

^ My thoughts exactly

Actually, several foreign companies have received millions of dollars in fines for offering bribes (while Cambodian officials got away with it). Australian and Canadian companies come to mind. The World Bank black listed SNC Lavallin for ten years and they faced fines in their home country try after they were caught bribing for a 5 million dollar contract (literally a tiny contract for an engineering company of that size). That's what used to scare many companies: for so long the only way to do business here was bribing, but if you got caught, your home country would find you...