Commune council members paid first, last salaries: interior ministry
THE Ministry of Interior has paid the first salaries for recently elected commune council members for the month of July, while former commune council members had also received their payments for June.
A letter to the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) in July 2022 said commune administrations had prepared 2022 budgets, which did not include monthly salaaries for recently elected commune council members in the 4th and 5th mandates.
However, based on the results of the commune council elections announced by the National Election Committee (NEC) on June 26, the ministry had formally recognised commune council members.
“We pay commune council members on a monthly basis. The payments for the commune council members in the 4th mandate were to be discontinued at the end of June 2022.
“The payments for the commune council members in the fifth mandate were to begin in July 2022,” said the letter, which was signed by Prak Sam Oeun, directorgeneral of the General Department of Administration at the interior ministry.
Sam Oeun could not be reached for comment on August 8.
Nhim Sarom, a newly elected commune chief for the Candlelight Party in Chamna Leu commune of Kampong Thom province’s Stong district, said on August 8 that he and other commune council members had received payment in early August.
He said that with their salaries having been paid via the bank, the mechanism for paying commune council members had been free from corruption.
“We all have been paid. They did not cut our payments or engage in corrupt practices because we were paid into the
bank,” Sarom said.
Heng Srey Pov, chief of Kansoam Ak commune in Prey Veng province’s Kampong Trabek district and a member of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), said on August 8 that her commune council members had received the July payment at the bank and on time.
At the end of each month, the state releases the money to all commune council members across the country into the bank, she added, with payment now easy and free from corruption.
“In the past, before it was paid into the bank, a clerk could draw out the money for all commune council members and
then charge 2,000 or 3,000 riel [$0.50 or $0.70] in travel fees per person. But this cannot occur now that we can draw it straight from the bank,” Srey Pov said.
In a sub-decree, the government mandated that from April 1, 2020, commune chiefs would be paid 1,110,000 riel ($270) a month. First deputy commune chiefs and second commune chiefs would each receive 870,000 riel a month, with commune council members to receive 760,000 riel.
The sub-decree said that the 25 provinces and Phnom Penh municipality consisted of 1,652 communes, with 11,622 commune council members elected in the June 5 elections.