Government defends its corruption-fighting record
The government has defended its record despite the country’s failure to achieve significant improvement in international rankings on public-sector corruption, and insists that the luxury-watch scandal involving deputy premier General Prawit Wongsuwan is not related to the unimpressive ranking.
Thailand’s ranking in the latest global Corruption Perception Index 2017 rose to 96 from 101 last year. Thailand scored 37 this year, up from 35 last year.
The index, prepared by Transparency International, ranks 180 countries and territories by perceived levels of public-sector corruption.
Nine key sources are used to compile the index, including the International Country Risk Guide, Economist Intelligence Unit, and the World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey. The ranking uses a scale of 0 to 100, in which 0 is “highly corrupt” and 100 is “very clean”.
“I don’t know. But the score has nothing to do with the [watch] matter,” Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam replied on Thursday when asked if Thailand’s score improved only slightly due to the scandal involving Prawut’s apparently extensive collection of luxury watches.
Regarding concern that the score had dropped due to lack of efficiency in scrutinising corruption among government employees, National Anti-Corruption Commission chairman Pol General Watcharapol Prasarnrajkit said that no country was able to thoroughly investigate corruption.