Graft busters 'need protection'

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said yesterday that graft busters and others operating under duress to keep public office holders in line deserve protection from authorities.

“Members of the NACC [National Anti-Corruption Commission] and other independent organisations risk danger as they have to work under pressure,” the general said.

“We must take care of them. They sometimes get threats and their families also suffer. People who do good deeds often face perils. Bad people often resort to illegal means,” he said in a speech at the NACC head office in Nonthaburi. 

Prayut was speaking on “Transparency in Thailand’s organisational management” before presenting the NACC’s Transparent Organisation Awards to winners from the public and private sectors.

However, the situation was improving under his administration, he said.

Before the coup in May, officials of independent organisations, particularly the NACC, became targets of people with political links. 

Grenades were fired into the NACC building and courthouses, and some staff and their families got threatening phone calls.

Corruption was “a dangerous trap for the country”, he said. 

Laws needed to be strictly enforced to subdue the graft menace, while the public should boycott corrupt public office holders who did not merit honour. 

“Corrupt people must be punished. They should feel remorse for their wrongdoings, instead of being proud of their ill-gotten gains. Society must reject those kinds of people,” he said.

The four winners of the Transparent Organisation Awards were the Health Department, Metropolitan Electricity Authority, Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and Tisco Financial Group Plc.

Awards for transparency went to 19 public and private organisations, which included the Cooperative Auditing Department, Business Development Department, Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand, Bangkok Life Assurance Plc, Seagate Technology (Thailand) Co, Thai British Security Printing Plc, Premier Marketing Plc and King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok.

NACC president Panthep Klanarongran said the four award recipients met the anti-graft agency’s criteria for social responsibility, respect for the rule of law and human rights, transparency and code of ethics.

The awards programme was part of the NACC’s campaign to raise public awareness of the evils of corruption. 

“The goal is to create widespread opposition against corruption and restore transparency in Thai society. We must not submit to corruption and we have to stand up against any form of corruption,” he said.

If corruption was allowed to run rampantly, Thailand would be doomed. 

“It’s time everyone in the country sees that corruption is unacceptable.”