A district police chief in Tbong Khmum province has been transferred from his post over accusations of bribery and misconduct in violation of the National Police regulations.

The O’Reang-ou district police chief, Loeurng Ratha, was removed on August 21 along with his subordinate Rong Mardy, who recently took to Facebook to reveal what Ratha had committed.

Mardy alleged that in exchange for being absent from work to do his personal business during administrative hours, he had to pay 700,000 riel ($170) per month to Ratha.

“[Ratha] required me to pay 700,000 riel a month if I wanted to get every half working day to moonlight as a taxi driver to pay off debt,” he claimed.

“When I failed to pay the 700,000 riel, Ratha reported me to the provincial police, accusing me of using working hours to moonlight as a taxi driver in violation of National Police regulations,” he said.

But Ratha claimed that Mardy had used the unit’s administrative hours to moonlight as a taxi driver without his permission.

“I don’t know when he made the agreement [with former district police chief], but when I took charge here about five months ago, I saw that he did not come to work in the morning. I had warned him several times before I decided to report his case to the provincial police for administrative disciplinary action.

“I have never received even 100 riel from him or any other officers. But if he somehow handed over the money to another official to solve the shortages in the unit, I do not know,” he said.

Tbong Khmum provincial police chief Mon Mekar told The Post that both of them had been temporarily transferred to standby at the provincial police station so that they can reflect on their mistakes.

“They will work temporarily at the provincial police station pending further investigation,” he said.