Projects 'increasingly seen as tainted'
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Thais are increasingly worried about the corruption situation in government projects, according to Chamber Business Poll.
Recently, perceived corruption in big projects has increased to 16-25 per cent from around 10 per cent two years ago. The potential corruption in big projects – the rice-pledging scheme, Bt350-billion water-management scheme and Bt2-trillion infrastructure scheme – could amount to Bt550 billion, in Thais’ minds.
The loss of Bt100 billion to corruption could potentially pull the gross domestic product growth rate down by 0.5-0.7 percentage point, Thanavath Phonvichai, director of the Centre for Economic and Business Forecasting, said yesterday.
The wasted money could be better used for large-scale irrigation in the Northeast, which could reduce costs for farmers, he said.
The opinion poll was conducted in all parts of the country from June 17-21.
About half of the sample of 1,200 think there are high-to-highest opportunities for corruption in many steps of government projects, such as biased specifications and the unfair qualification of corporations.
Lack of transparency is a main factor that makes most respondents believe that the Bt350-billion water management scheme will be rife with corruption.
Politicians, businesses and government officials are the main contributors to the problem and need to be targeted first and foremost, according to the poll.
Most respondents realise that corruption has negative impacts, on themselves and the country.
About 5 per cent have directly witnessed corruption. The rest formulated their opinions based on information in the media. The projects that have recently made the headlines have caused more people to pay attention to potentially preventing corruption, so the media has an important duty to tackle graft, Thanavath said.
The involvement from the very beginning of the process by independent parties and the general public would help get rid of corruption in Thailand. Equipping independent private sector organisations with the authority to investigate is one means to fight corruption, he said.
“Thailand has never seen powerful figures put on trial for corruption as in the case of South Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia,” he said, revealing the gap between the general will and implementation.
