Programs & Events
Why are Public Services Not Efficient?
By Mr. Leang Delux, Cambodge Soir and Radio France International
2nd place in CCJ/US Embassy 2008 Investigative Reporting Competition
(Prize: trophy and $800)
Low salaries, poor human resource management and corruption are the causes of inefficient public services. The real victims of this are poor people. The State provides funds to all Ministries but many civil servants practice absenteeism and let others get their salaries so that they are not dismissed for their absenteeism.
Seven years ago, Sokha applied for a job in the Ministry of Environment in the hope that he could work in Phnom Penh. But he was sent to work in a provincial department of environment. After working for one month, he was tired of traveling between his house in Phnom Penh and his workplace in the province. Since he was absent from work quite often, the office chief approached him and other staff members. Sokha said, "He said that he understood our situation and urged us to do like others by letting him take our salaries for" buying office supplies" and not coming to work." Since then, Sokha said that he stopped going to his workplace, but he is still registered as staff member of the Ministry of Environment, even though he has now worked in another Ministry. In the last couple of months, one of his former colleagues asked him to go back to the former workplace to fill in the new payroll forms for a 20% annual salary increase, as stipulated in the policy of the Government.
Only Names Remain in Payroll, but No Physical Presence of Staff
How many people are like Sokha in Cambodia? Too many and prevalent. The main reasons are that simple civil servants cannot survive on their small salaries. Even if they stop coming to work, their names are still on the payroll. Some come to work once in a while and, with some understanding of their higher-ups, still get their salaries. Others just let their boss take their salaries for not coming to work in order to have their names remain on the payroll, such as the case of Sokha, who has not come to work since 2000. So this shows that the increase in number of public servants exist on paper only, along with increases in spending on ghost civil servants. So there is always the lack of civil servants in workplaces and deteriorating public services.
The Ministry of Health received funds from the Ministry of Finance and Economics and paid salaries to Sopheak, who never turned up at workplace. After graduating from medical school in 1999, he was assigned to work in a district health center in Kompong Cham province. In the first few months of the assignment, he went to workplace. Latter, this young doctor stopped going to work and let his boss take his salary. Now he not only does not know how much his salary is, but also has to buy his boss meals in restaurants when the latter comes to Phnom Penh. Sopheak said, "No one can work on empty stomach. If I could survive on this small salary and benefits, I would be happy to work for the country and people."
Mr. Koet Meach, director of staff office in Ministry of Health, said there were some more cases like the case of Sopheak among staff in the provincial health departments. Mr. Meach said, "The number of such cases has dropped since the task force of the Ministry of Health started doing unannounced inspection on the spot in provincial and municipal health departments. The names of some civil servants are on the payroll of provincial departments, but they are always in Phnom Penh." Mr. Keat Chhon, Minister of Economics and Finance, said, "We have demanded back salaries of those ghost civil servants and have written our demand to institutions concerned."
No work
Some Government staff will go to their old workplace in the Ministry just to sign their presence even if they are working on a job in the private sector, if permitted to do so. Some of their bosses will permit them to do so since their salaries are too low for survival. Vanda, who is a staff member in the Ministry of Education, said, "There is not much work and my salary is very low, so I turn up at workplace once or twice a week just for the sake of turning up at work and to be able to get my monthly salary."
The case of Dara is no different. He has been working for several months under the Council of Ministers. He goes to workplace just to sign his presence. He said that the Council of Ministers would recruit new staff. An official in the Ministry of Environment said that very few staff came to work since there was not much work to do. "A few staff members will take over most work if they can earn money from extra work. I do not believe that 470 civil servants in Phnom Penh turn up at workplace every weekday.
The same is true of the National Assembly. A staff member who asked not to be named said that he rarely saw all staff members come to work. According to the September list, of the 936 staff members, excluding province based staff, 403 were absent; only 188 had leave of absence. In August, among the total 924 staff members, 111 were on leave and 155 had no leave of absence.
Salaries
According to the recent World Bank survey, 16% of secondary school teachers were absent from work. Poor salaries are the main reasons of poor public services and corruption. In the workshop on Priority Mission Group Scheme and Merit Based Pay Incentive held on October 03, 2007, Mr. David Reader, British Ambassador, said, "The annual 10-15% increases to the on - average $52 salaries of civil servants are still very low compared with national, regional and international levels. The Cambodian Government cannot recruit and maintain qualified personnel to work full time."
World Bank, which is a development partner of Cambodia, takes an interest in the above two points. It noted, "Delivery of efficient public services depends on good human resource management, staff recruitment and deployment." Mr. Peter Murphy, WB expert in public service management, said, "Meager salaries and poor accounting management mechanism have reduced the benefits of public service delivery and make public servants demand payment from service recipients. So, WB is interested in supporting the Council for Administration Reform, which is an agency of the Cambodian Government in charge of reforming managing human resources in public services provision."
The same WB expert also said, "Experiences from working with the Government show that provision of financial incentives to civil servants is necessary for facilitating and expanding provision of public services."
According to Mr. Cheam Yeap, Chairman of Finance and Banking Committee of the National Assembly, more than half of the national budget goes to administration, i.e. office supplies, and salaries of police, military and civilian personnel. He explained, "The 2007 national budget is USD1 100.00 million. $500 million goes to public processes (?). Excluding expenditures on office supplies, salaries of civil servants account for only 38% of the national budget. Monthly salary of Minister is 2.1 million Riels ($525); Secretary of State, 1.7 million Riels ($425); Under-Secretary of State, 1.4 million Riels ($350); Prime Minister 3 million Riels ($750).
Meager Salaries But Valuable
Despite poor salaries, very few people want to quit their job in the public service. They hope that one day they will get a good salary. In general, they have this thinking. In Sangkum Reasniyum (in the 1950s and 1960s), civil servants, especially teachers, had good salaries. Parents tell their children to seek or retain their civil servants' job.
After graduating from Phnom Penh Royal University, Vuthy went to teacher training school before teaching in secondary school. During the study, he found a job in Phnom Penh. After graduating from teacher training school, he was sent to teach in a secondary school in Siem Reap province. He wanted to quit because of poor salary, but his father urged him to keep that job. Later, he found a solution by working in a tourism company in Phnom Penh and letting the school take his Government salary for "buying office supplies" in exchange for the retention of his name in the school payroll. He goes to that Siem Reap secondary school when told to be present in important meetings in the school. A 50-year old official in the Secretariat of Public Functions said, "The job of a civil servant is a basic job and should be a lifetime job. Salaries of civil servants are small, but stable. We hope that one day civil servants will have decent salaries. In the public sector, taking a person's name from the payroll is not easy as in a private company. Some people think that being a civil servant, one is respected."
How Many Civil Servants Are There?
An unnamed official in the Secretariat for Public Functions said, "One cannot tell for sure how many civil servants there are since figures keep changing all the time. We don't know how many new civil servants, how many have died and how many have retired. In principle, civil servants make up from 0.7 - 1.5% of the Cambodian people. If the number of civil servants is more than this, people cannot feed them. At present, we can say that civil servants make up 1.2% of the total Cambodian people, or 160 000.
Each year, retiring civil servants and civil servants whose names are deleted from the payroll number more than 3 000 equaling the number of new civil servants. The Ministries that have the most staff members are, in order of number size, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Interior (administration staff) and Ministry of Agriculture.
The Government Is Taking Measures
In order to ensure efficient public services, disbursement of funds for civil servants and management of civil servants, the Government, through the Council for Administrative Reform, has implemented Priority Mission Group Scheme (PMGS) and Merit Based Pay Incentive (MBPI) for two years now. The two programs aim to provide performance based benefits and ensure efficiency of public services. Mr. Sok An, Minister in charge of the Council of Ministers, acknowledges that the Government has to increase salaries of civil servants, but has to ensure stability of remuneration. In the PMGS and MBPI implementation workshop on October 03, 2008, Mr. Sok An, who is also Chairman of the Council for Administrative Reform, said, "According to PM Hun Sen, monthly salaries could go up 20% a year and benefits could also increase. Based on this system, we can say that in 2013, monthly salaries could rise to $100." General Secretariat of the Council for Administrative Reform is the implementer of the two programs. The speeches of the President of the CAR and British Ambassador were taken from the website of CAR. We had no access to responsible official in CAR for interview on reforms related to civil servants. The British Ambassador said that about 1 000 civil servants from 20 Ministries had been recruited to work in PMGS program.
The Ministry of Health is an implementer of the above two programs. Since the end of 2006, the two programs have been implemented in far provinces or provinces considered poor, such as the provinces of Takeo, O'ddar Meanchey, Banteay Meanchey and Preah Vihear where benefits are provided to medical personnel who turn up for work. A medical doctor will receive $130 premium on top of their $50-$75 monthly salary. A nurse will receive $97 premium; a patient care taker, $62.5; a midwife, $10 for one delivery in town and $15 for one delivery out of town. Another source of income for health professionals are user fees paid by patients who can afford to pay and shared among personnel. The poor are not required to pay. Mr. Koet Meach, Director of Staff Department of Ministry of Health, said, "This way brings good results; many health personnel agree to work in provinces and we have created more health facilities where more staff are needed." This is a good approach, but there is still problem of inflation which outpaces monthly salary increase. Mr. Rong Chhun, President of Independent Cambodian School Teacher Association, welcomes salary increases but he calls on the Government to take action on inflation.