The Ministry of Interior and Transparency International Cambodia (TI Cambodia) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to extend the provisions of the framework for the School of Governance (SoG) phase II (2021-2025).
The signing ceremony was held on January 21 with government officials and representatives from civil society organisations in attendance.
TI Cambodia executive director Pech Pisey told The Post that the purpose of this collaboration was to jointly build the capacity of public officials and service providers to address issues related to good governance and civic integrity in order to strengthen the efficiency and quality of public services.
“The project will also leverage new technologies. It will give public service providers, citizens and youths a platform to interact and communicate with each other and respond to concerns in order to enhance accountability and ensure responsive delivery of public services,” he said.
Interior ministry secretary of state Ngy Chanphal told The Post that many improvements have already been made as a result of this project.
He added that because of the Covid-19 crisis, the new project will put special focus on the provision of services digitally to reduce in-person contacts and make everything more efficient.
“This is an important issue and we’ve garnered a lot of interest and contributions from our development partners as well as civil society organisations in Cambodia to support these reforms and promote good governance that has an overall greater efficiency,” he said.
Chanphal added that the cooperative efforts that had already occurred in the first phase of the project had contributed a great deal by providing many Cambodian public officials valuable training and education.
He said it had also helped by engaging in the regular monitoring of the implementation of laws and the provision of public services to citizens at the local level.
In 2016, TI Cambodia and the ministry signed the MoU for SoG Phase I which had been implemented in full over the five year period.
TI Cambodia said SoG Phase I had established the One Window Service Unit (OWSU) in the capital and provinces and staffed those units with civil servants who had undergone enhanced training in providing public services.
In addition, enhanced training in governance and public service was provided to 52 target groups with nearly 1,000 officials and government employees benefiting from this capacity building training in total, according to TI Cambodia.
Pisey and Chanphal said they both expect that SoG Phase II will allow the ministry and TI Cambodia to address areas of concern that they identified while conducting phase I and to continue to find ways to meet the challenges facing Cambodia’s civil servants and officials as related to the provision of public services across the country.
