Report diagnoses City Hall corruption but offers wrong cure
The recent report by the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) on the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s enforcement of building and fire safety laws reveals little we didn’t already know. Of course there is massive non-compliance and an overall lack of enforcement. This is how City Hall functions.
When city officials responsible for investigating building code violations are transferred, documents go missing or remain incomplete. Of course they do, this is how graft works.
Attention is drawn to the Public Works Department. And so it should be, as this is the bubbling cauldron of the entire BMA, the witches brew of corruption and dirty brown envelopes.
The OAG contends the BMA needs new databases for the effective enforcement of building and fire safety codes. This is a major evasion of the real issue (criminality) and the biggest guarantee that nothing is ever going to change.
John Shepherd
Bangkok
