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By Sun Narin
29 June 2018

At Cambodia’s central passport office, those seeking identity papers are routinely solicited for bribes by officials offering private document processing services—for a fee.

The hassles for Cambodians seeking travel documents start over a kilometer away from the central passport office.

The $10 or $15 that applicants must pay for this service is usually split among the roadside scouts, the office-compound middlemen, and the government officials who preside over the patronage chain, multiple interviewees told VOA Khmer.

On a recent visit by VOA Khmer to the government’s central passport office, not a single person could be seen filling in the application by himself, although it is simple and asks for only basic information. Every applicant was using a paid “helper” who had approached them in the compound.

Sopheak, a motorcycle taxi driver, explained that he scouted out the roads on behalf of a particular passport official, keeping a close lookout for potential applicants to steer toward his patron.

A person she referred to as an “agent” approached her and offered to help fill out the form and expedite it for $110. If she did not use his services, she said, the agent warned that her passport would take a long time to obtain.

After the interview, she called a journalist back and asked him not to publish a story on this “tea money” after all.

“Who told you about this?” she asked. “Now can you meet me? Honestly, I am afraid that I have done something wrong.”

Full article https://www.voacambodia.com/a/to-get-a- ... 60114.html

Excellent article

Yeah really good journalism

'This might not sound like a lot, but on average 3,000 to 4,000 people apply for a passport at the Phnom Penh office every day, according to official Interior Ministry figures.'

I find those figures very hard to believe.

4000? Every day? Impossible. I would guess that even 400 a day is stretching it.

i find it credible from the numbers of migrant laborers taking the thai migrant introduction course in Aranyaprathet
4-500 Khmers/day...monday-friday...5 days a week

Ah, good point..but 4000 applying for passports a day? That's another 3500 applications a day, surely most of them are not migrant labour? Which govt department could handle that? It takes months to get a WP and people want passports quickly.

that genius wrote: ↑Sun Jul 01, 2018 8:50 am 'This might not sound like a lot, but on average 3,000 to 4,000 people apply for a passport at the Phnom Penh office every day, according to official Interior Ministry figures.'

I find those figures very hard to believe.

4000? Every day? Impossible. I would guess that even 400 a day is stretching it.

I wondered about that too. Factoring in renewal applications, it still seemed high. will await confirmation/correction.

that genius wrote: ↑Sun Jul 01, 2018 8:50 am 'This might not sound like a lot, but on average 3,000 to 4,000 people apply for a passport at the Phnom Penh office every day, according to official Interior Ministry figures.'

I find those figures very hard to believe.

4000? Every day? Impossible. I would guess that even 400 a day is stretching it.

Or perhaps they (the source) inflated the figure in order to make the office seem very busy and super efficient at handling them all

Applicants are under no obligation to engage the services of these 'fixers', my missus has managed the process on 5 separate occasions (herself, 2 of her sisters and 2 children) without paying for the services of a fixer. Official fee only paid each time, passports all ready for collection (or delivery for a small fee) between 20-30 days.

The whole process is extremely simple, you turn up with the required documents plus copies of each, collect the application form and fill it in, then you follow the yellow painted footsteps on the floor.

The problem is, that people get overwhelmed by all the fixers hanging around outside telling applicants that they need to use them, and for people who cannot read and write or are not use to dealing with official bureaucracy it can be daunting and the use of a fixer makes the process easy.

I have been on a couple of occasions, and while yes it is busy, I find that figure of 4000 per day unbelievable.

I see this as a complete non story.
I also have friends and family who have done this by themselves within a month.

Fixers help people who are overwhelmed by bureaucracy and cannot fill in forms. Use them or don’t use them.
Of course they will tell stories to make people think that they need their services.