Minister of Interior Sar Kheng is opening his Facebook page to citizen requests and has put together a team to facilitate feedback.

The decision was announced on Monday and the team will be made up of 11 members led by the secretary-general of the General Secretariat Chea Sokunthea. Other officials include Sous Brathna, Kong Tylin, Ath Bony, Nuo Chanthy and Chheang Phearith.

The Facebook team is tasked with monitoring Sar Kheng’s page and noting opinions and questions that they can then pass on to the interior minister. If Sar Kheng responds, they will then send his notes to appropriate departments or related units to solve the problems.

The idea, according to a ministry statement, is to facilitate problem-solving and keep the minister informed.

Sokunthea said on Wednesday that he accepted the position. “I will put in the effort to work effectively and follow Sar Kheng’s advice,” he said.

He said the goal is to help tackle problems citizens are facing and the team must work in collaboration with departments and units to investigate and solve those concerns.

“Some citizens have commented on Sar Kheng’s Facebook page about various issues and our experts have helped to solve many cases. Sar Kheng now wants to solve more problems and we will report them to him,” Sokunthea said.

He said some problems citizens used to comment before were related to the passiveness in a small number of officials who did not perform well for citizens.

Soeng Sen Karuna, the spokesman for local rights group Adhoc, said he supported creating this group because Facebook users usually comment on the pages of government leaders when they face injustice.

When they comment about their problems, the heads or related authorities should help them tackle the problem. They face injustice and they cannot ask for help from anyone so they request the leaders to intervene, he said.

“I don’t know how efficient this team will be. We have to wait and see what they achieve first,” he said.