Cambodia

UCLG COUNTRY PROFILES Cambodia

Capital Population Areas

: Phnom Penh : 13,395,682 million (2008) : 181,035 km2

1. Introduction

River, Tonle Sap Lake, extensive floodplain and lowland areas, and the southwestern and northeastern uplands. The capital city is Phnom Penh, which is the political, economical and cultural center of the Kingdom.

Cambodia contains a diversity environmental types (forest, mountains, lowlands, jungle, plains) and is home to a wide range of flora and fauna, placing it in a key position to conserve the biological heritage of Southeast Asia.

1.1 Geography The Kingdom of Cambodia, also known as Kampuchea or as Khmer is the third smallest, tropical country of the 10 Southeast Asian nations. It is surrounded

by Thailand and Lao in the west and north and Vietnam in the south and the east (see map above). The country covers a total area of 181,035 square kilometers. It has 443 kilometers of coastline on the Gulf of Thailand of and its land circumference is 2,572 kilometers.

Cambodia’s main geographic features include the Mekong

1.2 Demographics According to the 2008 Census the population of Cambodia stood at 13,395,682 with annual growth rate 1.5 percent.

Ethnically the country is dominantly Khmer, but there are large minorities of Cham, Vietnamese, Chinese as well as a variety of hill tribes/peoples.

Of the total population, 80% live in rural areas (10, 78 million). The official and predominant religion in Cambodia is Theravada Buddhism, practiced by approximately 96% of the population.

Other religions include Muslim (2% practiced by the Cham), Christianity (1%), traditional tribal religions (1% - practiced by the highland tribes) Cambodia’s population accounted for 2.3% of the Southeast Asian population (567,637million) in the mid 2008.

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1.3 Political History Cambodia has been a constitutional monarchy since 1993 with King Norodom Sihamoni as head of state. The head of government is Samdech Hun Sen. Cambodia gained independence from France, to which it had been a colony since the mid-19th century, in 1953. Between 1953 and 1975 the country was neutral in the ongoing geopolitical struggles of the region.

However the Vietnam War extended into the northern provinces of Cambodia, and gave rise to the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge took control of the country in 1975, beginning a reign of terror in which it is estimated between 23% - 41% of the 7.3million population died either through execution or as the result of force labor, starvation and disease.

Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978 putting in place the People's Republic of Cambodia, and remained in the country until 1989.

After years of isolation, the war-ravaged nation was reunited under the monarchy in 1993.

2. Territorial organization According to the Constitution of the Kingdom, Cambodia is a unitary state that is non-dividable. New Articles 145 and 146 of the Constitution define the territorial administrative management system of the country.

It recognizes the capital, provinces, municipalities, districts, khans, Communes and Sangkats.

These administrative units are to be governed in accordance with the Law on the Administrative Management of Capital, Provinces, Districts, Municipalities and Khans and the Law on the Administrative Management of Communes and Sangkats.

Until the end of 2009, the total number of

sub-national administrative units includes 1 Capital, 23 Provinces, 159 Districts, 26 Municipalities, 8 Khans and 1,621 Communes and Sangkats.

The sub-national Administrations1 have been established as Provincial, Capital, Khan, Municipal and District levels by the Organic Law on Sub-national Administrations (2008). When these are considered together with the Commune/Sangkat Councils established by the Law on Commune/Sangkat Administrations (2001), two general types of sub-national governance and administration systems emerge: provincial administrations and local systems (for Capital, Municipal and District levels). Local systems consist of two 2-tier systems (District–Commune/ Sangkat and Municipality-Sangkat) and one 3-tier system (Capital–Khan/Sangkat).

While legislation tends to stress the commonalities of structures and systems among sub-national administrations at all levels, the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) is aware of the need to differentiate and clarify, through appropriate assignments of services delivery and regulatory functions, as well as the establishment of integration, cooperation and oversight mechanisms, the respective roles of the provincial and local systems.

The reforms set in motion by the Organic Law start to move away from a hierarchically-organized State 1

In Cambodia, the expression “sub-national administration” actually covers all three components constitutive of a sub-national authority: (i) an elected policy-making Council, (ii) an appointed Executive Governor and Board of Governors and (iii) an appointed administration headed by a Director. [Anukrets refer only to the first two, but the third could be assumed as implicit.]

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administration. Under the old system, the qualitative differences between Provinces and District were not an issue, because the District was both an administrative and a territorial unit of the Province. Under the new system, Districts/Municipalities are autonomous administrations, with their own mandate and funds. The role of the Provincial administration with regard to Districts/Municipalities is, therefore, to (i) provide a strategic framework within which Districts/Municipalities can make local plans and take local decisions, (ii) put in place and maintain appropriate and enabling mechanisms for the oversight of human resources and (iii) build the capacity of local systems to function efficiently and effectively.

Provinces/Capital, Municipalities/Districts and Communes/Sangkats have different roles and comparative advantages which should be reflected in the assignment of different responsibilities and resources.

The strategic intention of the decentralisation reform process in Cambodia is to, gradually but decisively, transfer to Districts/Municipalities and their constitutive Communes and Sangkats the bulk of service delivery responsibilities, while strengthening provincial capacities for strategic planning and investment as well as for provision of effective support and oversight of District/Municipality administrations. Recognizing and clarifying this qualitative difference between provincial and local systems of governance and public administration is therefore critical to understanding RGC policy. The RGC’s vision of the Cambodian subnational system of governance and public administration is one in which there is an important role for both provincial and local systems.

The RGC is keenly aware that the most urgent task is that of structuring the District/Municipality systems created by the Organic Law and building their capacity. This task must be addressed as a priority since, without this capacity, it will be difficult to move forward, especially cooperation with the Communes/Sangkats in order to further strengthen their capacity also.

In the event that District/Municipality have insufficient capacity, it will impact negatively on the functioning of the entire sub-national system.

So, while the National Program supports the development of all sub-national administrations, (including Provinces and the Capital2), the focus of the Three-Year Implementation 2011 – 2013 (IP3) is on Districts/Municipalities, as the starting point for the development of the entire sub-national system of governance.

However, the IP3 also recognizes the Commune/Sangkat as an important administration level (source of political power of Sub-National Administration) which should be further strengthened. In addition District/Municipality require to be strengthened its capacity for its new roles and responsibilities.

3. Local Democracy

3.1 Democracy and Decentralization With the promulgation of the Constitution in June 1981, new organs, such as the National Assembly, the Council of State, and the Council of Ministers, assumed their functions. These new bodies evolved slowly. It was not until February 1982 that 2

For the Capital (Phnom Penh) Law sets up an integrated system that expands the municipal model to higher level which is Capital councilThree local tiers.

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the National Assembly enacted specific law for these bodies. The "supreme organ of state power" is the National Assembly, whose deputies are directly elected for five-year terms. The assembly's 117 seats were filled on May 1, 1981, the date of the first elections. Then, the assembly adopted the new Constitution and elected members of the state organs set up under the Constitution. The assembly had been empowered to adopt or to amend the Constitution and the laws and to oversee their implementation; to determine domestic and foreign policies; to adopt economic and cultural programs and the state budget; and to elect or to remove its own officers and members of the Council of State and of the Council of Ministers. The National Assembly elects seven of its members to the Council of State. The chairman of the council serves as the head of state, but the power to serve as ex officio supreme commander of the armed forces was deleted from the final draft of the Constitution.

The government's top executive organ is the Council of Ministers, or cabinet, which in late 1987 was headed by Hun Sen (as it had been since January 1985). Apart from the prime minister (formally called chairman), the Council of Ministers has two deputy prime ministers (vice chairmen) and twenty ministers. The National Assembly elects the council's ministers for five-year terms. The prime minister must be a member of the assembly; other council members, however, need not be.

The council's five-year term continues without hiatus until a new cabinet is formed after general elections.

Before February 2002 all local administrations were appointed by government.

These administrations performed duties on behalf of the central government. They were essentially agents

of central government to which government delegated certain functions for implementation of its policies. Line ministries have their line departments/agencies at district and provincial levels, which carry out the development policies and plans of their ministries. Under this system the central government has retained ownership and responsibility for all functions that have been delegated to sub-national administrations or line departments. This delegation also includes specific controls and instructions. Local administrations and agencies have to respond and be accountable upwards to the Royal Government on how it has implemented the delegated functions.

Until 2002, local administrations were essentially agencies of central government.

This deconcentrated system was deeply rooted in Cambodia, there were no elected local authorities.

In March 2001, the Organic Laws, namely the Law on the Administration Management of Commune/Sangkat; and the Law on the Election of the Commune/Sangkat Council, was adopted.

Based on this Law the elections of the Commune/Sangkat Councils were successfully held in February 2002, creating very substantial local authorities.

The RGC considered this new policy as Decentralisation and Deconcentration (D&D), as indicated in the 2001 Organic Law. As of the first commune elections in 2002 Cambodia has been moving towards ever greater decentralization, in the aim of improving democracy in the country. A core principle of the decentralisation reform is to promote a culture of participation and pluralism and, via this process, to rebuild the state from the IV

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bottom up. In this process, narrowing the historical gap between authorities and the general public is of vital importance.

Enhancing commune council accountability to be responsive to the use of authority also becomes a key process.

Decentralization has enabled the establishment of local democratic institutions, but a culture of local politics has yet to fully develop. Individuals are still unable to speak their minds freely, and political discussions rarely occur openly.

Although this is due more to prevailing social norms than to open political suppression, it hampers the development of a vibrant political democracy at the local level.

3.2. Local political systems All Cambodian people are independent to join and stand for candidate in any political parties. Every Khmer citizens is equal before the law, enjoying the same rights, freedom and fulfilling the same obligations regardless of race, color, sex, language, religious belief, political tendency, birth origin, social status, wealth or other status.

Even stated by the Constitution, the free and fair election in Cambodia seems frightened to multi-party democracy. The structure of political parties are mostly similar both at national and local levels. All parties are governed by a President and Vice Presidents. The mandate of general election is five years.

Consecutively, Communes and Sangkats Councils are directly elected by local citizens (in February 2002 & April 2007) and then they in turn elected District/Municipality and Provincial Councils. Therefore, District/Municipality and Provincial Councils must be accountable to C/S Councils. The number of Councillors of each council shall be

determined based on demographic and geographic factors as follows:  The Phnom Penh Capital Council shall have a maximum of twenty one (21) councillors;  A Provincial council shall have from nine (09) to twenty one (21) Councillors;  A Municipal council shall have from seven (07) to fifteen (15) Councillors;  A District council and a Khan council shall have from seven (07) to nineteen (19) Councillors.

The actual number of Councillors of each council is determined by sub-decree based on a request of the Minister of the Ministry of Interior at least one hundred and twenty (120) days before the end of a council's mandate. In the event that there is no subdecree determining the number of Councillors for the next mandate, the total number of Councillors for each council shall be the total number of the old council.

The establishment of elected Commune/Sangkat councils has shown a number of positive results. First, the Commune/Sangkat council has gained legitimacy as the people’s representative organ, leading to a changed line of accountability and the re-channeling of development assistance to the Commune/Sangkat council to address local needs. Second, the participatory planning and budgeting procedure has allowed people to participate and express their preferences in terms of community needs.

Third, the decentralization program has contributed to security and peace building, and to physical infrastructure improvement leading to economic growth. Fourth, reform at Commune level has in return strengthened, stabilized and legitimized the central government. The Commune councilors who come from different political parties/ ideologies and were formerly V

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enemies are now working together to develop their localities.

3.3 Citizen participation Cambodian citizen participate not only in holding every five years general election, but also contribute to safeguarding their locality, promoting the standard of living and conducting the local development via the improvement of public facilities and infrastructures leading to the socioeconomic development and the poverty reduction.

At local level, the citizen involve in C/S monthly meeting, local planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of project. Additionally, local people contribute both in kind and in cash in local project implementation.

However, participation of local people in planning sessions was uneven and sometimes amounted to no more than observation.

The purpose of meetings convened with citizen has often been obscure. The selection of projects implemented has been mostly for infrastructure development, which has not necessarily address basic needs. Local contributions from villagers have not always forthcoming.

The procedures for authorizing expenditures and hiring contractors are not universally understood. Expenditures for development projects have not normally been made public. Perhaps understandably, although of some concerns, these processes have bee driven by blueprints and requirements imposed from the top rather than by learning emerging from the bottom.

ON the other had, in contemporary rural Cambodia, a growth of Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and NonGovernmental Organizations (NGOs) has been observed. Local people mainly participate in the democratic development through these organization and feel more

confident in expressing their concerns and challenges to local and national governments through them.

4. Central-local relationship

4.1. General issues The organic laws (in 2001 & in 2008) have given local governments a certain level of legal powers and responsible for administrative, political and financial management. To date, functions, human and financial resources have been transferred to local government. Certain national functions have become their obligatory and others are optional. National ministries then have a responsibility to oversee implementation of projects and check that functions are performed and to a pre–defined standard.

4.2. Supervision of local government Local governments work in their own offices in Provincial Hall, District Municipal Hall and Commune/Sangkat office. They make Decisions or Bylaws (Deikas) within their jurisdiction. Communes and Sangkats are supervised by Department of Local Administration (DoLA) and the supervision of District/Municipality/Khan and Capital and provinces are exercised by General Department of Local Administration (GDoLA) and Secretariat of Sub-National Democratic Development (SNDD) of Ministry of Interior. Local government receives technical advice and capacity building from these three national agencies.

The Department of Finance oversees local government budgets and financial processes. In addition, there are also staff within the provincial treasuries who support the local government budget process.

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4.3. Protection of local selfgovernment rights and interest The local self-government rights and interests are protected by Organic Laws 2001 & 2008. I these laws local councils are established and replace the existing local administrations. The governors who were appointed prior to these laws hold their positions and perform their duties until such time as a the council and board of governors is constituted.

The appointment of the board of governors is made within fourteen (14) days following the announcement of the official results of the elections of each council by the National Election Committee (NEC).

Bylaws, regulations, contracts, agreements, works, assets, revenues and all funds that are implemented or administered by or on behalf of the local administrations prior to the effectiveness of the Organic Laws are implemented and administered by the local administrations.

Units, officers and personnel of the local governments prior to elections continue in their operations until redeployment comes into effect. The Ministry of Interior determine and maintain the record on all transfers and receipts of rights, obligations, ownership, assets, revenues and funds as well as units and personnel from one administration to the next in an appropriate and transparent manner.

5. Local responsibilities

5.1 Collaboraiton between Decentralised and Deconsentated units Local authorities from the provincial governor down to the village chiefs are appointed and under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Interior. They carry out instructions from the center that generally

relate to routine activities like security matters and information gathering.

Deconcentrated line ministries continue to operate in a highly centralized manner following the vertical lines of authority of reporting to and receiving instructions directly from their central ministries. These line ministries are operationally ineffective partly due to their lack of clear mandate and partly due to their lack of technical and financial guidance and supervision from the central ministries.

Relations between local authorities and deconcentrated line ministries are arbitrary and vary depending on how each perceives the institutional strength of the other. In the provinces, for instance, local authorities and line departments have established close coordination and collaboration in the formulation and implementation of provincial and local plans. This has happened primarily because the Provincial Rural Development Committee/ Executive Committee (Excom) manages decentralized funds through the provincial governor. Access to these funds requires coordination and consultation between local authorities and line departments at various stages of planning, budgeting, and implementation.

5.2 Local council responsabilities The council has a chairperson and a set number of council members. The actual number of Councillors in each council (721) is determined by sub-decree based on a request of the Minister of the Ministry of Interior. The council make necessary decisions or bylaws (Deika), hold meeting, review new functions, duties and resources in accordance with the law, develop three year rolling investment program and five year development plan, develop Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWPB), monitor financial resource, personnel and assets.

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Beyond this, Councils consult the public and disseminates information to citizens and undertake other duties which are determined by laws, royal decrees, subdecrees and other legal instruments.

6. Local finance and management 6.1 legislative framework The D&D Strategic Framework and Organic Laws demanded that councils at each subnational administrative level have adequate financial and property resources in order to carry out their functions and responsibilities in meeting local citizen’s needs. For the councils to manage the transferred finance and properties with the highest transparency and integrity as well as a high level of accountability to the people and to the Royal Government, the Organic Law provided for the development of the Law on Financial Regime and Property Management at sub-national level, which ensures that the council will formulate, approve and implement its budget, with proper financial accounting, management of property and with internal and external audits on the council’s budget and finance. Councils are also required to produce both a 5-year development plan and 3-year rolling investment program which define their council’s visions for its territorial development.

6.2. Local government incomes The Organic Laws (2001 & 2008) stated that local governments are eligible to own revenues from fiscal and non-fiscal taxes and service charges (land tax, tax on immovable properties and rental tax) and grant resources from national government which include complete or partial transfer of specific revenues from fiscal and nonfiscal state taxes, grant resource, subsidy or transfer from the state revenue. Grant

resources are provided provincial/municipal treasuries.

through

Provinces are responsible for the provision of local services such as water supply, garbage collection, street lighting, and fire fighting. They are also expected to pay the salaries and wages of their employees as well as subsidies to districts, communes, and villages. To pay for these services and expenditures, provinces are allowed to retain revenues derived from certain tax sources (taxes on unused land, registration fees and vehicle taxes), and non-tax sources (user charges on electricity and water, market fees and rentals).

The share of the national budget allocated to the Commune/Sangkat fund has increased from 1.5% of current domestic revenues in 2002 to 2.7% in 2008. The fund has enabled the Commune/Sangkat councils to respond directly to the priorities and needs of their local citizens through participatory planning and project management.

At municipality/district level, several projects and support mechanisms have been formulated for municipality and district administrations to participate in the next round of D&D reform. Budget and administrative structures have been created and strengthened in pilot municipalities, districts and khans, enabling them to provide public services and work with the capital, provinces, and Communes/Sangkats more closely in meeting the needs of the citizens. One example of this is the One Window Service Office piloted in Siem Reap and Battambang Districts (now Municipalities).

The achievement of this pilot project has encouraged the RGC to expand the establishment of these offices to other targeted districts and municipalities, in order to further strengthen the role of the VIII

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district and municipality in services and engaging citizens.

providing

6.2. Local government personnel and management Public civil servants are employed both by the central government and by local government units.

Local government personnel are governed by personnel policies of the GDoLA, the central personnel agency of Ministry of Interior, and certain provisions in the Local Government Code. The merit principle guides the selection, recruitment and promotion of officials and employees.

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