Over the period from 2022 to 2024, more than $10.7 million in salary payments were found to have been overpaid to civil servants at both the national and sub-national levels, say the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU). Over $9 million has reportedly been recovered.
On July 7, the ACU announced that the Ministry of Civil Service had discovered a total of 43,155,940,400 riel (over $10.7 million in overpaid salaries during the years 2022–2024. This included 11,105,139,544 riel at the national level and 32,050,800,856 riel at the sub-national level.
The same source revealed that of the total overpaid amount, 36,934,293,726 riel (over $9.2 million) has already been returned to the national budget. However, 6,221,646,674 riel (just over $1.5 million) still remains unrecovered.
The civil service ministry is pushing ministries and institutions at both the national and sub-national levels to repay the remaining balance.
“These salary refunds stem from payments made during periods when individuals were no longer entitled to receive them — such as during unpaid leave, early retirement, death, termination, resignation from the civil service, transitions from contract to official government employment or cases of double salary payments from multiple state agencies,” explained the ACU.
The unit also reported that in the first half of this year, it received 259 complaints, 86 of them (33.2%), anonymous. Among them, 20 complaints were found to be unrelated to corruption, 115 complaints were determined after investigation to not involve corruption, 7 complaints led to interventions or support measures and 7 complaints resulted in legal cases being forwarded to the court. 114 complaints are under ongoing investigation, while 3 are in process.
In addition, the ACU reviewed and resolved 46 complaints received in the month of June alone.
On July 3, the ACU announced an investigation into Sean Borath, secretary of state at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and Deputy Chair of the ACU, as well as General Sar Theavy, under Secretary of State at the Ministry of National Defence.
The investigations are linked to a major fraud case involving disgraced former Oknha Leng Channa in Kampong Thom and Siem Reap provinces — a case with thousands of victims and losses amounting to millions of dollars.
The Siem Reap provincial court forwarded 32 case files involving Channa and 32 of her associates to the ACU. The court had been diligently working on the case for nearly two years. The ACU noted that the 32 case files totalled 24,852 pages, which took a team of 10 officers one full month to read and review.
“Borath and Theavy were witnesses at the Siem Reap Provincial Court stage. However, under the ACU’s formal investigation, both are now considered suspects,” explained the ACU.
Both Borath and Theavy had previously been summoned for questioning by the Siem Reap court regarding this case.
In October 2024, the Government Lawyers Group was granted authority to provide legal assistance to the nearly 5,000 citizens across the country who were victims of fraud by the real estate company Brilliant City, owned by Channa, through fraudulent investment schemes.
