Yim Sovann describes an initiative to reform Cambodia’s Finance Ministry and curb corruption in 1993-94. He says that when he joined the ministry as an assistant to the new minister, the treasury was bankrupt and inflation was running as high as 300%. Civil servants had not been paid for as long as four months, and there was no public finance law, no law regarding revenue collection or expenditures, no inventory of state assets and no anti-corruption law. The first task was to draft an entire complement of financial reform laws based upon past practices and outside experience. The greatest resistance came from high government officials engaged in non-transparent privatization of state assets and military groups engaged in illegal businesses and smuggling. He says that the ministry was successful in improving revenue collection and paying civil servants and soldiers. The minister’s resulting credibility enabled him to deal with soldiers to combat smuggling and corruption and to encourage ministry employees to enter positions and win promotions based upon merit. Corruption in the ministry virtually disappeared, he says. However, without top political support, such reforms could not endure. Many gains were lost after administrations changed.
At the time of this interview, Yim Sovann was serving his third term as a member of Parliament for Phnom Penh. He was an assistant to the minister of finance during 1993-94, after which he studied in Japan for a degree in economics. He was elected to Parliament in 1998 after he had returned to Cambodia.
In this interview, Professor Humphrey Assisi Asobie recounts his experiences working for the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) to increase transparency within the Nigerian government and its service industries through the increased involvement of civil society organizations. He goes into detail about the challenges he initially faced in his role, including recruitment issues, maintaining a strong moral compass, increasing capacity to undertake the work, countering the culture of secrecy amongst the bureaucracy, and finances. Asobie provides step-by-step guides as to how he tried to address these issues, and how he ensured the ideas were favorably received. He also talks about his efforts to build support for the reform initiatives to help move the reform process along, and the role of NGOs, civil society, and the public. He addresses questions regarding the purpose of transparency initiatives, and how to engage civil society not only in the initiatives, but also in using the information provided. He also emphasizes the need to conduct reform efforts against corruption from the ground up in order to establish a base from which to attack those higher up the ladder. Throughout the interview Asobie is candid about what strategies worked, what strategies did not work, and the lessons learned from the process.
At the time of this interview, Professor Humphrey Assisi Asobie was head of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) for Nigeria. He has been involved in the program since 2004 as the head of Transparency in Nigeria, representing civil society at EITI. Prior to his role at EITI, he was President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities in Nigeria as well as Vice President and subsequently President of Transparency Nigeria. Upon his appointment as Chairman of EITI in Nigeria in 2008, he stopped being a representative of civil society and began representing Nigeria.