Key officials admit to need for more work to fight corruption

By THE NATION 

 

Watcharapol

 

THE GOVERNMENT’S graft buster and legal adviser have both conceded that the country was yet to perform well in fighting corruption, despite the slightly improved score and rank in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released on Wednesday.
 

Pol General Watcharapol Prasarnrajkit, the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) president, said Thailand expects its score to improve to 50 in the index in the next few years by following the set national strategy. He said the latest score and rank only meant it had not yet reached the target, and more needed to be done. 

 

“We should reach a rating of 50 by 2021. We should help one another out,” he added.

 

The NACC would set up a subcommittee to analyse three sub-indexes with relatively low scores: political process; economy; and administration, Watcharapol said. Reacting to concerns that the drop in score was due to a lack of efficiency in scrutinising corruption among government employees, Watcharapol said no country was able to thoroughly investigate corruption. “However, everything should be gradually improved once things become legally ‘untied’,” he said.

 

Watcharapol claimed that the government’s “seriousness in fighting corruption” and enforcement of the “anti-graft” charter would be key factors in contributing to overall increased scores in the future. 

 

Deputy PM Wissanu Krea-ngam, the government’s prime legal advisor, admitted that democracy and rule of law may have contributed to the evaluation on Thailand. “It’s not about whether the government is satisfied or not,” the deputy PM said. “We’ll assign the Justice Ministry and the national anti-corruption command centre to fix the remaining weaknesses.”

 

The deputy PM dismissed the scandal over Deputy PM General Prawit Wongsuwan’s luxury watches as contributing to the CPI.

 

He said in a separate interview that it was up to Prawit to decide whether he should step down from the board of directors of the Centre for National Anti-Corruption (CNAC).

 

Mana Nimitmongkol, secretary-general of the Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand, said that the slight improvement in Thailand’s score meant much remained to do to fight corruption.

 

 

The key points in Thailand’s corruption issues are: patronage system, bribery, lack of good governance in the bureaucratic system and obstruction of access to public information, making it harder for public scrutiny of the government sector.

 

One area of improvement for the Thai government is it has facilitated and simplified processes with the private and people sectors, with fewer complications, eliminating the need to pay “tea money” to officials.

 

“However, law enforcement, prosecution of wrongdoers and discretion of people in power remain weak points of the country [in terms of corruption],” Mana said in his Facebook post.

 

The global coalition against corruption, Transparency International, this year ranked Thailand at 96th, improving from 101st place last year, with a score of 37. The index ranks 180 countries and territories by perceived levels of public-sector corruption over the past year. Nine key assessments are used to compile the index, including the World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey. 

 

National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) secretary-general Worawit Sukboon said Thailand’s score had dropped in three assessments involving politics and democracy. Its score rose slightly in three other indexes and remained the same in two more, while Thailand was not assessed for one index. 

 

For instance, the Bertelsmann Foundation Transformation Index gave Thailand a score of 37, three points lower than last year. Worawit said this assessment likely reflected the perception about investigation of corruption cases “close to the government”; case disclosure, political participation, and press freedom remain weak points although the government had restored and maintained peace and order. 

 

The World Justice Project’s (WJP) Rule of Law Index, on the contrary, gave Thailand 40 points, given the country’s official stance against corruption and recent efforts to suppress corruption via new mechanisms, including creation of a special corruption court, said Worawit.

 

Worldwide, this year’s index found that the majority of countries are making little or no progress in ending |corruption.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30339485

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-02-23

5 minutes ago, webfact said:

Pol General Watcharapol Prasarnrajkit, the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) president, said Thailand expects its score to improve to 50 in the index in the next few years ...

Head in sand, arsse up in the air. This attitude is just a bloody cliche. I might have more respect for this noddy and his fellow ostriches if they openly admitted that there was no possibility of Thailand ever becoming a country in which law and order rule the day.

I could write pages and pages on this subject, but...

 

A good place to start is if a deputy Prime Minister displays ostentatious wealth and offers flimsy excuses as to where it came from, arrest him immediately to show that you are actually serious about combating corruption.

 

Anything less is insulting lip-service.

Yeah, the formula to combat corruption is : One honest person, lots of conviction and determination,

and a dash patriotizem and the love for your country.....

2 hours ago, webfact said:

We should help one another out,” he added.

 

Who’s we? The rich elite? 

Well when you hear phrases like this. ...

 

"It's better now, you only have to pay 1 time, not many times like in the past " 

 

You know the country is moving in the right direction. 

...In other news "Bear observed taking large steaming dump, in the woods"

 

...at least it's Friday :)

The watch wearing piggy needs to exit the trough.  Perhaps all this stupidity by the men in green will stop the endless cycle of coups. 

When it raises it's head right next to the top, and the 'top' simply supports its old friends, ie cronyism, it is apparent that so far they are simply paying it lip service.

Position availabe for Proof Reader???

Edited February 23, 20188 yr by dotpoom

The above report is "jibberish". 

Absolutely non-sensical.

How many Deputy PM's are there ?

 

Corruption is absolutely endemic. It would be far better to come out and acknowledge just how bad corruption is in this country, rather than coming out saying they expect to halve their current rating within 3 years. 

 

It really is the blind leading the blind here. 

A police force would go some way towards lowering the corruption level....oh!

Most essential place to start to have any chance of recognition would be a squeaky clean R Thai police force,   to take care of it's people and protect.   Instead of generally using the force to collect cash from the public on the streets of every province.     Patrolling the streets and having police on the beat would get the respect for starters.  Road blocks every 5 kilometers is causing traffic hold ups therefore drivers are speeding after to make up time lost.

Secondly is the top brass in most city and town to keep a clean and waterproof budget,     When you have public trash dumped all over the county and mega pot holes everywhere,  you see the bus convoys of officials swanning off to a resort to attend a conference  (holiday).    Look into the wealth of top persons, their houses and cars in relation to their monthly salaries here is where you will see the corruption.

The problem is simply too large and inbred for any meaningful success.

Where to start?

9 minutes ago, DoctorG said:

The problem is simply too large and inbred for any meaningful success.

Where to start?

"Where to start?"

 

Transparency and responsibility, not only at a personal level but in ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT!

 

Unfortunately, hardly likely to happen in Thai 1.0 (pretending to be Thai 4.0) which is the equivalent of feudalism of the Middle Ages.

 

Wherefore art thou Cromwell? (to sadly paraphrase Shakespeare). 

"Where to start?"
 
Transparency and responsibility, not only at a personal level but in ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT!
 
Unfortunately, hardly likely to happen in Thai 1.0 (pretending to be Thai 4.0) which is the equivalent of feudalism of the Middle Ages.
 
Wherefore art thou Cromwell? (to sadly paraphrase Shakespeare). 

I recently had to use the ‘anti-corruption’ Dept against a Bank. They insisted on a bribe to do their job.
NEXT!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

53 minutes ago, ginjag said:

Most essential place to start to have any chance of recognition would be a squeaky clean R Thai police force,   to take care of it's people and protect.   Instead of generally using the force to collect cash from the public on the streets of every province.     Patrolling the streets and having police on the beat would get the respect for starters.  Road blocks every 5 kilometers is causing traffic hold ups therefore drivers are speeding after to make up time lost.

Secondly is the top brass in most city and town to keep a clean and waterproof budget,     When you have public trash dumped all over the county and mega pot holes everywhere,  you see the bus convoys of officials swanning off to a resort to attend a conference  (holiday).    Look into the wealth of top persons, their houses and cars in relation to their monthly salaries here is where you will see the corruption.

No choice words for the military? 

2 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

No choice words for the military? 

off topic  and troll

My general topic reply on subject and here you are with this hatred ( not agreeing with a positive post but a snide remark.

Edited February 23, 20188 yr by ginjag

Just now, ginjag said:

off topic  and troll

Off topic? They are the topic. 

1 minute ago, Eric Loh said:

Off topic? They are the topic. 

Well talk about them if you wish not bait me into your usual anti Government agenda

1 minute ago, ginjag said:

Well talk about them if you wish not bait me into your usual anti Government agenda

I respect your resistance to be baited to talk about the military. 

5 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

Off topic? They are the topic. 

Troll means to antagonize and bait,  have a go at the government yourself.

1 minute ago, ginjag said:

Well talk about them if you wish not bait me into your usual anti Government agenda

If Eric Loh (like many others) is anti corruption and the 'government and many of its servants' are engaged in corruption then his concern is, rightly so, 'anti government'!

 

Whats your problem? 

5 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

I respect your resistance to be baited to talk about the military. 

If you use your loaf, you will read into my post properly, it is really asking the government to act upon what my post is about--GET IT

Edited February 23, 20188 yr by ginjag

4 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

I respect your resistance to be baited to talk about the military. 

I wonder if you can be baited to see that the democrats did much better then YL. All in all the army did not do so bad compared to YL. They certainly went off to a good start and then messed it all up.  But there is little difference between the army and YL the democrats on the other hand were far less corrupt according to this graph. How do you feel about that ?

 

edit* army were more hypocritical as they said they would fight corruption.. Though I can still remember pics of YL laughing at an anti corruption meeting.

Edited February 23, 20188 yr by robblok

Just now, lvr181 said:

If Eric Loh (like many others) is anti corruption and the 'government and many of its servants' are engaged in corruption then his concern is, rightly so, 'anti government'!

 

Whats your problem? 

Problem is to press the said government with this topic to act-----NOT use the topic to bring out your anti military agenda

Just now, ginjag said:

Problem is to press the said government with this topic to act-----NOT use the topic to bring out your anti military agenda

The military is the GOVERNMENT. And no meaningful 'agenda' to fix or even to mitigate corruption. Just usual publicly spoken platitudes.

3 hours ago, ezzra said:

Yeah, the formula to combat corruption is : One honest person, lots of conviction and determination,

and a dash patriotizem and the love for your country.....

to DO that they need MORE MONEY.and where are you going to find ONE HONEST PERSON.

Edited February 23, 20188 yr by meatboy

It’s. Joke TIT