Cambodian minister wants compulsory drug testing of all job and student applicants

Minister of Interior Sar Kheng made the remarks on December 14 at a ceremony to celebrate the achievements of Bavel High School, Lvea High School, and Svay Prey Primary School in Bavel district of Battambang province.

“Every citizen who wishes to serve as a police officer, run for village chief of a commune council, civil servant, become a member of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and the National Military Police, or people seeking employment in the private sector should be tested for drugs. If they test positive, they should not be allowed to work. Teachers and students are no exception,” he said.

He added that drivers of all kinds of vehicles must be tested for drug use as well. If they test positive, they should not be allowed to drive, and they must have a certificate to prove their test is negative, and that documentation could be used as a factor in applying for jobs.

Sar Kheng urged all sectors to make it mandatory for jobseekers to have a negative test certificate.

He warned that any businesses, factories or manufacturing enterprises that employ staff without the certificate would be held accountable.

He admitted that the main impediment to implementing this policy is that the state cannot open enough centres or institutes to test everyone in society for drugs, and the task requires participation of the private sector. He also made clear that the state would not bear the cost of testing, and each individual applicant for any job or school would have to pay for it on their own.

Speaking on a separate issue, he made a strong case for community sentencing for mild offences as prisons nationwide are overcrowded. He believes such as step would help reduce public expenditure.

Prisons in Cambodia house more than 30,000 prisoners and suffer from overcrowding.

He added that to facilitate the work, he is discussing it with Sak Setha and Bun Hun, permanent secretaries of state at the ministry, to expand the use of community sentences.

“We already have the law. The Criminal Code covers community sentences. We already have legal principles but we just haven’t implemented this type of sentence yet. I ask for the support of the people and local administrations because they set obligations for perpetrators,” he continued.

This community sentence is a non-custodial sentence for mild crimes and the punishment is some type of community work.

He added that the mild crimes eligible for community sentences are minor theft.

“We allow them to sleep at home, but they have to fulfil some obligations …because we’ve made arrests and put them in prison now and we don’t know where to put them as our prisons have to offer rice and water,” Sar Kheng stated.

Am Sam Ath, deputy director for monitoring at rights group LICADHO, said civil society organisations working in this area have made recommendations for years to implement community sentences because it is also stipulated in the Criminal Code.

“So, the court should raise this point and implement community sentences for any minor offences because community sentences are good. First, we don’t spend state funds on feeding them in prison and second, they can live with their family members, and third, they can help with community work,” he added.

“But so far, we have seen that the ministries of interior and justice have held meetings and set procedures to implement community sentences, but so far they have not been implemented,” he said.

Sam Ath acknowledged that community sentence implementation is hard, but that if the government and authorities tried hard enough to implement them and educated the local people, it would be possible.

In a meeting with Japanese deputy Minister of Justice Hiroyuki Kada back in July, Sar Kheng had said that Cambodia has not been able to implement community sentences smoothly because it lacks the support of the people. He, however, pledged to pursue the idea in order to reduce state spending.

The Phnom Penh Post

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