Ethics watchdog to be set up under new charter
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Agency to promote morality; detailed proposal to go to reform council next month
A moral and ethics watchdog will be established under the new constitution to increase public awareness about good governance and accountability, the director of the Moral Promotion Centre, Sin Suesuan, said recently.
Soon after the National Reform Council accepted the proposal to promote moral and ethics nationwide, a NRC drafting committee began working out details to regulate this new agency, said Sin, who is also a member of the charter drafting committee.
The agency will be made up of three institutional bodies – a steering committee, a secretariat and a moral assembly.
These institutions will encompass people from different backgrounds, ranging from the public sector to civil society.
Their first task will be to set moral and ethical standards for high level executives from the public and private sectors.
These institutions will be designed to improve public surveillance of the political system and to provide society with complete information about their political cadres and private executives.
The process of information gathering for the agency will last until the end of January before the committee will submit a second proposal to the NRC. Accordingly, two months was given to the committee to complete the entire process.
“Public participation is pivotal to the drafting process”, said Sin.
Different constitutional draft-
ing committees are reaching out
to the wider public from Bangkok
to remote areas to gather ideas from all stakeholders, Sin said.
He stressed that public participation was at the heart of the information gathering process. “The newly created bodies should reflect the diversity of society and the needs of all stakeholders”, he said.
“Different sorts of challenges emerge from the past work of the Moral Promotion Centre, especially the lack of authority to present an agenda.”
Created in 2004, the mechanism to promote morality and ethics has already realised many projects nationwide. A national plan designed to increase veracity and honesty from 2012-2016 is one of the examples, according to Sin.
Besides that, a pilot project to boost morality and ethics in society – currently underway in several provinces including Buri Ram, Ratchaburi and Phatthalung – is another example.
“The current work of the Moral Promotion Centre bears fruit. However, the legal aspect will give more muscle to this social watchdog to control the political system,” Sin said.
He also emphasised that the drafters had no intention for the new social watchdog to substitute for the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC).
Unlike the NACC, he said, the new institution would only do the task of public surveillance and tabling recommendations if needed.
The new moral bodies would not have the authority to place sanctions on high level executives. The Moral Bill would increase social responsibility among leaders through social control.
Sin said the legal side of the bill would pave the way for the newly created watchdog to be more effective in its operation. “People tend to be more respectful when laws and social norms are both effective,” Sin added.
“In the end, our aim is to create a more sustainable approach to dealing with issues related to corruption and to improve the current situation.”
