Coming next: Another fight against graft

This follows the government’s push to eradicate drug dealing, which has already been set into action.
“The idea of corruption eradication came after the prime minister received more and more information about government agencies demanding bribes. The agencies mentioned include the Customs Department, which has long been one of the agencies most cited for this issue,” a source close to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who asked not to be named, said.
A survey reported at the National Anti-Corruption Commission’s first anti-graft strategic training course for mid-level administrators, said many state agencies were plagued with corruption. They include the Royal Thai Police headquarters, the Department of Land Transport, Bangkok’s city administration, the departments of Revenue, Lands, Community Development, the Offices of the Election Commission, the Attorney-General, and the Court of Justice.
Meanwhile, complaints about government officials filed with the NACC have continued to pour in. As many as 81,200 complaints have been submitted since the anti-graft office was set up.
The top five problems include violations of laws or regulations, corruption in procurement, embezzlement of budget for government projects, stealing government agency property and officials demanding bribes.
“The strategies’ objective is that the PM wants to move forward the corruption eradication seriously. She also wants issues that people complain about to be taken care of. The process must be transparent –people should be able to examine and give information. More importantly, heads of government agencies must think and prepare how to design systems to prevent officials from asking for money,” the source said, noting that this was what the premier told heads of state agencies.
The prime minister had met with leaders of state agencies and called for ideas – “brainstorming”. She also ordered them to figure out how to prevent officials making illegal requests for money and to “clean up” their agencies, then to put the measures in the “internal anti-corruption plan”.
The Office of the Public Sector Development Commission was assigned to collect the plans and keep them as a key performance index that every organisation has to implement each year.
Thus, the Cabinet on Tuesday approved the “Anti-corruption Strategies for the Public Sector”. And a “kick-off” event to announce the policy will be held at the Government Complex tomorrow.
To make sure that this policy is acted upon, the government will set up an anti-corruption “war room” at the Justice Ministry. Justice Minister Police General Pracha Promnok will be the chairman, while the secretary-general of the Office of the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission will be secretary of the war room.
Information will be linked to the PM’s Operation Centre so that the premier can closely follow up on issues or details.
And a hotline – 1206 – has been set up to receive complaints about corruption in the public sector.
In October, the best and worst government agencies will be announced, as per votes by the public. The National Statistics Office and academic institutions’ polling units will be part of this.
Punishment for “cheaters” will be announced then, too.
PM’s Office Minister Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan, in charge of events on anti-corruption for public sector, said the “kick-off” tomorrow will be a declaration of the government’s intent to get rid of corruption in the public sector.
The minister said he believed that once corruption is reduced, problems in the government sector would decrease. Although this could not be put in percentage terms, success could be achieved if all agencies join hands.
Once it kicks off tomorrow, it will be a matter of implementation.
But no matter how good the plans or strategies are, without cooperation from government agencies and civic network, this goal cannot be achieved.
What makes it so hard is the fact that corruption has been rooted in Thai society for a long time.
It will take people a long time to get used changing current ways.
Assumption University’s Abac Poll did a survey from January 15 to 28 this year and found that 64 per cent of respondents said they could accept corruption if they benefited from it. Only 36 per cent disagreed.
But eradication of corruption in the public sector was deemed important. And no government has ignored this or failed to implement policies against it.
But clearly, we have seen little progress from any government.