More than 40 officers from the Pailin Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction Department were made to swear before the statue of Yeay Yat on Monday that they had not misplaced 21 land titles.

No one knows the location of the missing certificates in question.

Department deputy director Suon Leaksmey told The Post on Tuesday that recent news about the loss of the land certificates belonging to residents is not true. He said the lost certificates were unused or they were just new certificates.

“They are unused ones and did not belong to any citizen,” he said.

That the certificates were lost without reason cast doubt on officials in the unit, he said, so the officials had to swear according to tradition.

The office director of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction Phou Sangha told The Post that 21 certificates could have been lost at the end of 2019. He said the department is investigating, but the certificates cannot be used.

“Whoever took those certificates will be punished by law for faking documents. It is illegal to use and officials know about this by the code in the certificates kept in our data,” he said.

Sangha said the loss of the certificates is in the investigation stage and there is no fine or punishment meted out as yet.

Adhoc’s Battambang and Pailin provincial coordinator Yin Mengly told The Post on Tuesday that the loss of certificates goes beyond swearing.

Carelessness does not end by only swearing but there must be a proper investigation. This is the carelessness of public servants.

“Those who dared to take the documents will be charged under criminal law. We do not know whether the lost documents were taken to be used in a bad way. I believe that if there is no benefit, no one would try to use it,” Mengley said.

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