State agency proposes stringent measures to fight corruption

The Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO) has come up with six measures to help boost the efficiency of Thailand’s fight against corruption:

- Strict enforcement of the anti-corruption law, with harsher penalties against corrupt public officials and bribe-givers

- Adoption of technology to reduce the need for judgement by officials, particularly in the procurement and standard verification

- Designing a warning system on the progress of public projects that issues alerts when irregularities occur

- Educating state officials about different types of corruption

- Taking legal action against influential figures to prevent them from influencing public officials

- Studying international measures against corruption that can be applied for use in Thailand.

TPSO director-general Poonpong Naiyanapakorn said that Thailand had placed the fight against corruption on the national agenda many times but there had been no serious implementation of the policy. He added that the measures suggested by his agency could be adopted to help boost the efficiency of the fight against corruption.

Poonpong noted that Thailand ranks 101st in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) among 180 nations, according to the 2022 CPI report published by Transparency International in January 2023. The country came fourth in Southeast Asia, behind Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

“The score is higher than in the previous year but the place is still low, which reflects the seriousness of corruption in Thailand,” he said.

The official pointed out that four groups of people are involved in Thailand’s corruption problem: people who bribe for convenience and to seek exemption from rules, authorised officials who receive bribes, corruption examiners who are too slow or ignorant, and influential figures who use their power to influence relevant officials.

He said corruption had adverse consequences for Thailand’s trade and investment. State budgets had been wasted, leading to slower development. Corruption could impact the quality of goods and services, affecting the credibility of Thai exports. Corruption could tarnish Thailand’s image in the eyes of foreign investors, he warned.