Anti-Corruption Unit of Cambodia
I. History of the Establishment of Anti-Corruption Unit
From one mandate to another mandate and in accordance with the commitment and political will of the Royal Government of Cambodia and in the cause of building the country toward development and prosperity within the international arena with the aim to transform the country into a fast-growing economy stage, and seeing the consequences of corruption which become the obstacles to national development, the Royal Government of Cambodia has been striving tremendously to establish one competent unit to the fight against corruption since 1999 until now. The process of the development of the said Unit so far was divided into 3 stages as follows:
- First Stage (1999-2006): The Anti-Corruption Activities Unit (A.C.A.U) which was established under the Sub-Decree No. 96 dated October 27, 1999 under the auspices of the General Secretariat for Administrative Reform of the Office of the Council of Ministers.
- Second Stage (2006-2010): The Anti-Corruption Unit known by its abreviation as A.C.A.U operated under the Office of the Council of Ministers was established by the Royal Government by Sub-Decree No. 84, dated August 22, 2006. The Unit has a mission to focus on three crucial cross-cutting areas which include: the prevention, the enforcement, with the support from the public in the fight against corruption.
- Third Stage (2010-Present): The Anti-Corruption Law was promulgated in 2010 followed by the establishment of an anti-corruption institution comprised the National Council Against Corruption (NCAC) and the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU). NCAC plays the role to set out the anti-corruption strategy and policy as well as to oversee the implementation of the work carried out by ACU. ACU is the operator of the work in fighting against corruption by educating people not to want to corrupt; by preventing people from being able to commit corruption, and by enforcing the law, filing corruption cases and to send corrupt perpetrators to the competent court for the prosecution in order that they dare not to commit corruption.
- The Structure of ACU is as follows:
• Internal Investigation Division
• 02 General Departments
• 08 Departments
• 33 Bureaues under the 08 Departments
• Anti-Corruption Focal Points within all government’s ministries/ institutions
• Capital-Provincial Anti-Corruption Branch Offices.
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II. Anti-Corrution Law and Relevant Laws
The Anti-Corruption Law has the scope to cover all forms of corruption offences in all sectors and at all levels throughout the country, and this law is complemented by other applicable laws and legal provisions.
1. Anti-Corruption Law
On April 17, 2010, the Anti-Corruption Law was promulgated and it was amended in 2011. This law is developed based on the two fundamental legislations: the 2007 Criminal Procedure Code and the 2009 Criminal Code, which aims to enhance the effectiveness of all kind of services, to strengthen good governance and the rule of law in the process of the management and leadership of the State as well as to ensure the cleanliness and justice, which are the fundamental basis for the development of society and for the sake of the alleviation of the poverty.
This law offers the exclusive authority to ACU to investigate the corruption offence, to file and send the cases to court, to empower the President of ACU to lead, to coordinate and to oversee the mission of the officials of ACU substituting the role played by the prosecutor. In addition to this, the President of ACU is also given the privilege and authority to investigate with the exception and contradict to some articles stipulated in the Criminal Procedure Code. After the completion of the investigation of each respective case, ACU shall refer all the proceedings to the prosecutor for further action in compliance with the provisions stipulated in the Criminal Procedure Code. In criminal cases involved with corruption offence, the court take charge the complaint shall hold a hearing session as soon as possible (Articles 21 to 31 of the Anti-Corruption Law).
The Anti-Corruption Law stipulated a total of 38 corruption offenses (Articles 32 to 43) which include:
• 10 offences related to taking bribes
• 09 offences related to giving bribes
• 19 other related corruption offences.
2. Relevant Laws
2.1. Criminal Code
The Criminal Code was promulgated in 2009, which defines offences, identifying individuals who can be declared as the persons responsible for offences and determine the punishments agaisnt them, as well as to determine the procedure for such punishment. The Criminal Code comprises 672 Articles, in which it also defines about corruption offences, where the 40 corruption offences have been excluded and taken to include into Article 32 of the 2010 Anti-Corruption Law, making Anti-Corruption Law a special law.
2.2. Criminal Procedure Code
The Criminal Procedure Code was promulgated in 2007 comprises 612 articles. This code sets out the basic procedures for building a criminal case which shall be strictly abide and to ensure and determine the existence of any specific criminal offences stipulated. Particularly, for the procedures applicable to the corruption offences stipulated in the Criminal Code and the offences stipulated in the Anti-Corruption Law, as well as other applicable laws, the procedures stipulated in the Criminal Procedure Code must be abided by whenever there is no separate procedures stipulated in the Anti-Corruption Law.
The Anti-Corruption Law sets out special procedures for the investigation and filing the cases of corruption sent to court, with the exception of certain articles of the Criminal Procedure Code.
2.3. Law on Public Procurement
The Law on Public Procurement, promulgated in 2023, stipulates in Article 80 stipulated about corruption offence in the public procurement and gives exclusive power to ACU to investigate corruption and to file the case to the competent court (This new law substitutes the Public Procurement Law 2012).
2.4. Law on the Management, Usage and Disposal of State Property
The Law on the Management, Usage and Disposal of State Property, promulgated in 2020, stipulates corrupton offence in Article 87 in the management, usage and disposal of state property and provides the exclusive powers to ACU to investigate corruption offence and file the case to the competent court.
2.5. Law on the Management of Non-Tax Revenue
The Law on the Management of Non-Tax Revenue, promulgated in 2022, stipulates the corruption offenses in Article 91 in the Management of Non-Tax Revenue and provides the exclusive powers to ACU to investigate corruption offence and file the case to the competent court.
2.6. Law on Taxation
The Law on taxation, promulgated in 2023, stipulates the corruption offence in Article 251 in the area of taxation and provides the exclusive powers to ACU to investigate corruption offence and to file the case to the competent court.
2.7. Law on Inland Waterway Transport
The Law on Inland Water Transport promulgated in 2024; Article 263 stipulates about the abuse of power committed by competent authorities to gain personal interests once they perform their duties or in the occasion they perform their functions, the offenders committed the offence shall be punished under Article 35 (Abuse of Power) of Anti-Corruption Law which is the act of corruption offence. The said offence is solely and exclusively under the authority of ACU for the investigation and proceeding the case to the competent court.
III. Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan
Anti-corruption strategies and policies prepared by the NCAC in accordance with its mandate for the period of 5 years. From its inception to the present, the NCAC has already launched the anti-corruption strategy and policy for three times: the first time was for 2011-2015, the second time was for 2015-2020 and the third time is for 2020-2025.
To achieve anti-corruption goals, NCAC introduced 06 strategies for 2020-2025: (1) education, (2) prevention, (3) law enforcement (4) policies, laws and regulations, and (5) national and international cooperation and confiscation of proceeds of crime, (6) strengthen the capacity and integrity of public institutions as well as to monitor and evaluate the implementation of strategic plans.
Based on the the anti-corruption’s strategy and policy of NCAC, the Anti-Corruption Unit has set out its action plan by having three pronged approches to fight against corruption: (1) education, (2) prevention, and (3) law enforcement in which this mechanism has won the support, encouragement and support from the government for the implementation with the active participation and the shared responsibilities from all ministries, institutions and stakeholders, including the competent authorities at all levels, the private sector, the media, the academia and civil society.
IV. Investigating Powers of ACU
The Investigation on corruption offences is the exclusive authority of the ACU. Ministries, institutions and other entities that are aware of the corruption offences stipulated in the Anti-Corruption Law, the offenses stipulated in the Crminial Code and other laws and regulations in force of the Kingdom of Cambodia shall report to ACU or the Capital-Provincial Anti-Corruption Bracnch Offices about the facts of those offences. Procedures for the application of corruption offences shall follow the procedures set forth in the Code of Criminal Procedure, unless otherwise specified in the Anti-Corruption Law.
ACU establishes a mechanism for receiving and dealing with complaints, and this mechanism has been highly appreciated and positively valued by complainants and the public. All complaints, whether in person or by mail, via white-box, by phone, by e-mail, or either by any forms of social media, have been thoroughly reviewed and resolved at breakfast meeting/complaints review meeting (beginning at 07:30) every morning of the working day to examine the complaints filed the day before the meeting takes place. This meeting is open to the plaintiffs to attend and listen to the preliminary hearing as well as to give them opportunities to provide additional inputs related to the complaints they have lodged. Opportunities given to the plaintiffs to take part in the complaint review meeting and witness the actual process of the review meeting thus does reflect the efforts with the professionalism and the competency of ACU in resolving all the complaints filed, in which the resolutions to the complaints have always been applauded by the complainants.
The mechanism of receiving and resolving complaints and the investigations are also applied for both information obtained both from open source and intelligence source; going under very strict and thorough scrutiny process. It should be noted that above mentioned mechanism and procedure is done on the condition to strictly abide by to the principle which ensure the integrity and confidentiality of sources and for the sake of guarantee the security of witnesses either within the ACU and outside the Unit, especially once the case is to send to the competent court.
Furthermore, ACU has continuously worked to strengthen and enhance the capacity and competencies of the necessary and requried professional skills of its officials in the field of investigation includes the information gathering techniques, survellance and intelligence, computer forensic skill, financial investigation and other requried technical skills, especially with all the works involved the procedures filing cases to court. ACU so far has been successful in dealing with a series of difficult, and complex cases. Moreover, the Unit was also advanced in the tasks involved with the major preventions and confiscation missions of proceeds of crime once the court proceedings have been completed.
Officials of ACU who have become the competent judicial police officers are tasked to deal with the investigation of the corruption offences. In the case of investigating corruption offence once the other crimes have been found and the facts of that crimes are involved with the crimes being investigated, ACU officials can proceed further on such investigation until the procedure of the cases is finished. It is not possible for ACU to start an investigation into any crimes other than corruption unless the court authorizes an order the Anti-Corruption Unit to do so. Within the framework of the investigation, the President of ACU or his/her fully competent designated representative has the role to lead, to coordinate, and to oversee the missions carried out by those officers, substituting the role played by the prosecutor until the time once the detention of the suspect is done. After the detention, the prosecutor shall exercise his powers as stated in the Criminal Procedure Code.
In investigating corruption offenses, the law gives preferential treatment to ACU regarding the activities of surveillances, that is, in cases where there are specific hints that there is a corruption offense, ACU can:
• Check and put under the supervision of a bank account or other accounts deemed to be the same as bank accounts.
• Check and order the provision or copies of all authentic documents or individual documents or all banks, financial and commercial documents.
• Follow, put under surveillance, eavesdrop, record audio and take photos and video recordings, and engaged in phone taping.
• Check and access documents including documents stored in electronic files.
• Conduct operations aimed at collecting actual evidence.
All the above measures and actions mentioned above shall not be considered as a violation of professional secrecy. Bank secrecy is also not a justification as the reason for the refusing to provide evidence related to corruption.
At the end of each investigation, ACU must send all proceedings to the prosecutor for further action in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code.
V. International Cooperation
ACU actively contributes to international cooperation in the fight against corruption at both the regional and global levels, which such cooperation can take place in the form of bilateral, multilateral or agency to agency cooperation as well as through the form of Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters (MLA).
In a form of agency-to-agency cooperation, ACU may provide the assistance using approaches as follows:
• Prior to a formal request for an MLA, upon receipt of a request for assistance from any party, ACU shall assist in providing relevant information regarding with the intelligence and investigations.
• Then, ACU shall assist to gather more additional information and to conduct the surveillance on the targets.
• Once a formal request for an MLA is made, ACU shall facilitate the process of such official requests.
In case of request made to ACU to assist in providing relevant information, put under surveillance and identification the targets during the investigation phase, such kind of request can be directly sent to ACU. ACU is pleased to welcome such kind of request made and to provide the assistance to the requesting party. Likewise, ACU also expects the same kind of treatment once the other party receives such kind of request for assistance from ACU.
Regarding with the mechanism form mutual legal assistance in criminal matters (MLA), Cambodia complied with the Law on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters (MLA). Following the procedure in place, the request for legal assistance from the foreign state must be sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MFAIC) of the Kingdom of Cambodia or sent to the Central Authority (Ministry of Justice). In the case of a request made to the MFAIC, the request shall be forwarded to the Central Authority of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) for further proceedings.
Furthermore, the aspect of international cooperation can also take place within the framework of capacity building provided to officials within each respective institution, in a form of exchange of visits and sharing experiences among all concerned members.
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