Chamkarmon Governor to Retain City Position

Phnom Penh’s governor says he will not investigate a district official who was nearly implicated in two illegal karaoke clubs earlier this month.

Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema told VOA Khmer on Friday there was “no need” to investigate Chamkarmon District Governor Lo Yuy because of the structure of city government.

If he were removed, Kep Chuktema said, it would not be publicly. Kep Chuktema said he had not found bribery among any of the city’s eight district governors.

Kep Chuktema was quoted by the English-language Phnom Penh Post as saying in a meeting last week he wanted to fire Lo Yuy, after police raided two illegal karaoke clubs in his district.

“I did not accuse Lo Yuy of taking bribes from karaoke clubs,” the governor said Friday. “I only said, ‘The drug problem and sex abuse was happening in your area. So what does that mean that it still happens in your area? You don’t know, or you pretend not to know?’”

Kep Chuktema said he had phrased his words this way because residents in the area had complained of illicit drugs, prostitution and child sex crimes in the district, which could lead them to assume bribery by the district’s leader.

Instead, Lo Yuy will remain at his post. He declined to comment Friday.