Continued failure by the Cambodian government to stem endemic corruption will deepen poverty in the country and could turn it back into an “authoritarian and conflict-prone state,” the World Bank says.
The warning, in a report to be issued later this month, is one of the harshest assessments yet of the governments failure to match its anti-corruption rhetoric with action.
– Cambodia is indeed at the crossroads, said a draft of the report adding: – Failure now to accelerate reforms will prove very costly for Cambodias poor and for its future as a country. The report is meant to serve as a guide for major foreign aid donors, who will meet Dec. 6-7 to coordinate their assistance to the impoverished South East Asian nation.
With about half of its national budget coming from foreign assistance, Cambodia is expected to ask for hundreds of millions of dollars. The reports strong language suggests that donors — who have let slide unfulfilled government promises of reform in the past — may mean business this time around.
Donors failure to link aid to performance “has sent mixed signals to the countrys leadership, which has shown itself rather adept at doing just enough to win donor support,” the report said.
Cambodia should produce “measurable progress over the next 12 months,” the report urged, adding that the volume of donor support must “be conditioned on the adequacy” of its reform effort.
The poor are particularly helpless in the face of corruption,” the report said. “They … are often unaware of what they are required to pay for public services, allowing the corrupt to trade on their ignorance.”
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
