Traffic police accuse top officials of graft
Fri, 21 August 2015
Meas Sokchea

A group of Phnom Penh traffic police have filed a damning complaint to Anti-Corruption Unit President Om Yentieng, accusing their bosses of skimming their pay, promoting friends and relatives, and striking deals with private transport companies.

In the anonymous complaint, submitted Monday, the cops demand Yentieng take legal action against an unnamed traffic police chief and nine deputy police chiefs, who they say “oppress” their subordinates and “corrupt” the traffic division.

Deputy police chief Heng Chantheary is named as head of the section being exploited.

The complainants say they’re forced to earn cash along main roads, including Norodom and Monivong boulevards, and kick $100 upstairs each month to their bosses.

Those who want to work overtime have to pay an extra $50 a month, they add.

“Factory workers are worth more than us because workers working overtime receive money from their bosses, but we are traffic police and to work overtime we have to pay our bosses. We do not understand.”

Also, the group says their bosses allow big trucks from certain companies to flout laws banning them from the city.

And, they say, long-serving officers are routinely passed over for promotion in favour of those with ties to management...