This Project, funded by EU through a consoritum led by DanChurchAid in partnership with Advocacy and Policy Institute and Cambodian Center for Independent Media, aimed to contribute to a more equitable, open and democratic Cambodia by increasing access to information, demand good governance, and supporting independent Media operators. To do so, our Team focused on strengthening the independence and professionalism of national and local journalists, improving the quality of media content and widening the access to, and use of, public information.
Paying only the legal fee for public services, not one Riel more.
Mr. Hun Seanghai receiving information about his rights to access public services.
Mr. Hun Seanghai, a citizen living in Srah Chik Village, Srah Chik Commune, Phnom Srok District (Banteay Meanchey Province), was once required by public officers to pay 20,000 Riels (5 USD) as public service fee to get his identity card. In fact, the fee should have been only 10,000 Riels (2.5 USD), the price set by the government. His case was not isolated, as also other members of his community had received such exorbitant requests for IDs and other legal documents.
Due to this, the poorest people in the community, including Mr. Hun Seanghai, preferred not to apply for their identity card and some even gave up on getting their family record books.
People like Mr. Seanghai had never been informed of their rights and of the true amounts of public service fees, as local authorities hid this basic public information, enhancing the chance for corrupt civil servants to make extra money at the expenses of the citizens, a problem that seriously affects, on a daily basis many citizens all over the Country.
The API project staff came to the area and realized how deep the impact of these practices was on the communities. They started informing the citizens of their rights, organizing meetings and distributing informative materials to increase awareness of the right to access public information, at the same time advocating to strengthen the knowledge of commune councils and district councils as well as local people, related to rights to information, administrative and public service fee disclosure, roles and responsibilities of local elected officials, and budget of commune development disclosure. Local public servants started to get aware of their duties, and the issuing of identity cards and other key documents for the people started falling in line with the standards and procedures set by the State.
Commune and district authorities used their new knowledge to raise awareness of more people through the communes’ announcement boards, meetings, public forums, and began to effectively respond when people asked for more detailed information.
Mr. Hun Seanghai was one of the participants in our Project, who benefited from all these activities. Now, Mr. Hun Seanghai and his family members have received identity cards from their local authorities, and they only paid 10,000 Riels and not one Riel more.
This ID and civil registration service was advocated by the citizens and finally the government has changed its policy to charge zero Riel (0 Riel), after the new national election government in 2018 to now. 17 million citizens now are benefiting from our API advocacy work on this project advocacy.
