Big hotels can equal big corruption

Surapong Techaruvichit, president of the Thai Hotels Association, has stated publicly that about 20 per cent of hotels in the country are operating illegally. That’s a staggering (though utterly believable) figure. However, he is grossly “naive” to assume that only small establishments evade the law and that larger hotels generally “do not create problems since they are mostly big operations with a range of services”. (Logic, please!)
To compartmentalise lawlessness in this way is ludicrous. Illegal hotels go right across the board and there is evidence to support this. The difference lies in the fact that the larger players are able to hide their criminality in a more “professional” and effective way. Bigger hotels pay more for being illegal, making the cover-up more extensive – from the ground up, so to speak. Smaller hotels can’t afford this higher level of corruption, meaning that the size of the brown envelope is in direct proportion to the size of the hotel operation.
Khun Surapong is too forgiving (or protective?) of the more upmarket sector. To gain greater credibility, he should delve deeper into some of the more questionable practices of his elite business colleagues. Even better would be for the government and its anti-corruption teams to mount their own detailed investigation into the entire hospitality and construction industries, in order to ascertain whether international and local companies investing and operating in the Kingdom are in compliance with fundamental regulatory and legal requirements. Many people try to blame political unrest but it is unchecked corruption that will gradually bring about the slow, sad decline of these influential national industries.
John Shepherd