Anti-corruption step: procurement rules to change

“Corruption is rampant,” Kriengkrai Thiennukul, deputy secretary-general of the Federal of Thai Industries, said yesterday.
Firms are forced to pay up to 30 per cent of government projects as kickbacks to politicians and state officials to win them, he told a forum on “Promoting Transparency in the Thai Marketplace”.
Some participants in the forum even raised the current issue of the weak flood-prevention system in Central provinces, saying this was partly due to facilities that were poorly built because of corruption.
Ratanawalee Rochanaroon, a fiscal analyst at the Comptroller-General’s Department, said the Finance Ministry had proposed to the Council of State, the government’s legal adviser, amendments to the government procurement regulations for better transparency.
The package being scrutinised by the Council of State is designed to provide more information to the public, such as how the government calculates the reference price for a project.
Independent auditors would be required to examine each procurement project. This should lessen corrupt practices among politicians, senior officials and businesses, she said.
E-auction procedures would also be revised to require winning bidders to deliver high-quality goods to the government. They would no longer get a contract merely by offering the lowest price as they do now. Under the new rules, those offering a higher price but a higher-quality product could land the deal, Ratanawalee said.
Utis Kaothien, adviser to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), called on companies collectively to punish others that pay bribes to politicians and state officials.
Punishment by the court or other public organisations would not be effective in getting rid of graft. For example, in England private firms collectively impose social sanctions on underhanded firms, he noted.
Medhi Krongkaew, a member of the NACC, expressed confidence that the new anti-corruption law would be effective in helping to solve the problem.
Under the new law, the NACC could spare those who are forced to pay bribes to officials if they give information to the graft-busting agency.
To raise public awareness, Juree Vichit-Vadakan, secretary-general of Transparency Thailand and a member of the Kingdom’s Private Sector Collective Action Coalition against Corruption Council (CAC), vowed to work with schools and universities to cultivate ethics among children and youths.
Kim Bettcher, knowledge management director of the Centre of International Private Enterprises, promised to join with the Thai public in the campaign against corruption.
Bandid Nijathaworn, president and chief executive officer of the Thai Institute of Directors Association, said his organisation would hold training courses for businesses on corporate good governance and anti-corruption measures.