Audit finds flaws in KRouge tribunal hiring

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — An audit of Cambodia's genocide tribunal has highlighted serious hiring flaws and suggests that the UN's development agency UNDP, which oversees millions in donor funding, should quit the court.

The audit was commissioned by the UNDP last year following allegations that some Cambodian staff had paid for their positions on the UN-backed court, which was established to try former leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime.

But it was only made public late Monday amid growing pressure for its release.

The audit details a tangled bureaucracy inside the Cambodian side of the joint-court, rife with unqualified staff, bloated salaries and the creation of dozens of unnecessary jobs costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"If the Cambodian side does not agree to the essential measures that are, from UNDP perspective, necessary to ensure the integrity and success of the project, then serious considerations should be given to withdrawing from participation in the project altogether," the audit said.

It goes on to recommend that all Cambodian contracts be nullified, and new employees hired under closer UNDP supervision.

The UNDP says the audit is a private document and would not comment, but tribunal staff maintain that they have nothing to hide and have responded to most of the findings.

One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the court, which posted the audit on its website, had always wanted the findings to be made public.

But the official also dismissed the audit's recommendation that the UNDP withdraw from the court.

"Imagine if they were to leave this late in the game, 18 months on. It would be disastrous," the official said.

The court is currently investigating five people for crimes committed during the communist Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 rule over Cambodia, during which up to two million people died.

So far two suspects, former prison chief Duch and regime ideologue Nuon Chea, have been detained.

The tribunal's decision to post the audit comes as the cash-strapped court prepares to launch a major fund-raising campaign.

Tribunal spokesperson Helen Jarvis said earlier that the court has enough money to continue operating through early next year, but that budget shortfalls could threaten to delay the process after that.

Some 56.3 million dollars have been budgeted for the long-stalled trials, but the Cambodian government has so far only pledged a fraction of its 13 million-dollar share.

The rest, officials say, must come from additional donor funding, although there are fears that the international community might be unlikely to pay for what it perceives as a flawed process.