Three corruption schemes drain Bt500bn a year, ACT says

Corruption in Thailand’s public sector is costing the country an estimated Bt500 billion a year, according to the Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand (ACT), which says the damage is driven by three main schemes: cheating the state, extorting the public and businesses, and internal bribery within the bureaucracy.

The issue remains a persistent national problem and continues to weigh on Thailand’s standing in global corruption rankings. The latest Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International on February 10, 2026, showed that corruption remains a serious threat. Thailand scored 33 out of 100 in the 2025 index, ranking 116th out of 182 countries or territories, down one place from 2024 and marking a continued slide since 2022, when the country scored 36.

Mana Nimitmongkol, secretary-general of ACT, estimated in December 2023 that corruption in the public sector was worth around Bt500 billion a year. His calculation drew on the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce’s Thai corruption situation index, along with earlier academic studies including Guns, Girls, Gambling, Ganja: Thailand’s Illegal Economy and Public Policy by Pasuk Phongpaichit, Sungsidh Piriyarangsan and Nuannoi Treerat in 2000, and Corruption in the Public Sector in Thailand: Perceptions and Experience of Households (year varies across citations).

Mana grouped the illicit money into three broad categories: “cheating the state”, “cheating the people”, and “eating one another”. He said the Bt500 billion estimate did not yet include the wider hardship and long-term damage inflicted on the country, the public and honest businesses.

1. Cheating the state

Mana said the biggest source of losses came from corruption against the state itself, particularly kickbacks from public procurement.

1.1 Procurement kickbacks

He estimated that kickbacks and under-the-table payments linked to state procurement and investment projects were worth around Bt200-300 billion a year. The figure was based on an assumed average leakage rate of 20-30% of investment and procurement budgets across all types of state agencies, though he noted the actual level could vary from one period to another.

1.2 Unfair benefits to the private sector

He also pointed to cases where the state was exploited through excessive subsidies to private firms in public-private partnership projects, inappropriate concession extensions, multibillion-baht investments in transmission poles to support electricity purchases from a single private supplier, overpriced and unnecessary electricity purchases from private producers, unrealistically low royalty collections from mining concessions, and cheap rental of state land.

Mana said this type of transfer of public resources to benefit private interests was often justified by officials using exaggerated claims while key information was concealed, making it difficult for society to understand the full picture or calculate the real scale of losses.

1.3 Theft or embezzlement of public money

Another category involved the direct theft or misappropriation of state funds. Examples included embezzling national park entrance fees collected from tourists, not collecting them at all in exchange for bribes from tour companies, and the diversion of state subsidy funds such as temple support budgets and assistance for the poor.

He also cited fraud involving revolving funds, including the embezzlement of scholarship funds at the Education Ministry, as well as corruption involving cooperatives and loan funds. Cases of this kind could range from a few thousand baht to hundreds of millions of baht each.

2. Cheating the people

The second category covers bribes, protection money and illicit payments extracted from the public and businesses.

2.1 Bribes from the illegal economy

Mana said one major source was bribery and protection payments from the illegal economy, including underground lotteries, brothels, arms trafficking, undocumented labour, drugs and gambling dens. He said these shadow businesses were estimated to be worth 8-13% of Thailand’s GDP of Bt17 trillion a year, or around Bt1.7 trillion annually. If only 5% of that were paid as bribes and protection money to officials at all levels from start to finish, the total would amount to around Bt85 billion a year.

2.2 Household bribes

Another stream of corruption comes from bribes paid by ordinary households when dealing with public agencies to complete legal transactions, registrations or access services to which they are already entitled. Such payments may be the result of extortion or may be offered voluntarily to gain convenience, speed up a process, cut paperwork or reduce waiting time.

Mana estimated that such household bribery was worth at least Bt5 billion a year, though he believed the real figure was much higher because survey respondents may underreport such payments out of fear. He added that this estimate did not include payments made by industrial businesses when dealing with officials.

2.3 Bribes from businesses seeking survival or advantage

He said businesses in transport and industry also pay bribes or protection money either to survive or gain an advantage, whether they operate honestly or not. Examples included illicit payments linked to trucks, vans, buses and entertainment venues.

2.4 Bribes for licences and approvals

Corruption also occurs when businesses or individuals pay to obtain official approvals, permits or licences, such as those for house extensions and construction, retail businesses, factories, entertainment venues, hotels, apartment blocks, supermarkets, and import-export operations.

2.5 Payments to avoid detection

Another form of bribery involves payments made to officials outside government offices so that offences are ignored or action is not taken. In some cases the payer may have committed an offence, while in others they may be facing harassment or unfair treatment. Examples include payments to traffic police, municipal enforcement officers, or labour and police officials by employers and migrant workers.

Mana said corruption in this second group totalled more than Bt100 billion a year. Although it is extracted directly from the pockets of ordinary people, it ultimately harms the country as a whole, especially those without connections and those who try to act honestly. He said the people who suffer most are the poor.

3. Internal bureaucratic corruption

The third category, which Mana described as officials “eating one another”, refers to bribery and influence-trading within the bureaucracy itself.

He said that although the sums involved may not be as large as in the other categories, this form of corruption is deeply dangerous because it is the root cause that drives officials to seek patronage networks and raise money by any means possible.

3.1 Sale of posts

One major example is the buying and selling of positions, particularly in agencies where posts bring access to large benefits. The price of a position depends on how much money it can generate later. Mana said frequent complaints have involved agencies such as transport, the police and the Interior Ministry.

3.2 Other forms of internal favour-trading

Other examples include payments to have cases dropped, hierarchical sharing of bribe money generated from the second group, and lobbying local government budget allocations through powerful figures in the Interior Ministry.

Cost of fighting corruption

Mana also noted that the state spends heavily each year on anti-corruption work. In 2023, the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission and the State Audit Office together used a budget of Bt5.848 billion and employed more than 7,578 personnel.

Wider damage beyond the numbers

ACT said the estimated Bt500 billion in annual corruption losses does not include the broader indirect damage that continues to eat away at Thai society.

That wider damage includes investors being scared away by opaque official processes, rising and uncertain business costs feeding through into higher prices for goods and services, poor-quality or overpriced public services for citizens, and huge amounts of tax money being spent repeatedly to solve problems that should never have arisen in the first place.

Mana argued that small-scale corruption may be carried out by officials on their own, but major corruption involving huge losses always requires political involvement. That, he said, is why it should not be surprising if people in government appear indifferent to anti-corruption efforts.