Tech could beat welfare corruption, experts say

[webfact]

Tech could beat welfare corruption, experts say

By PRATCH RUJIVANAROM 
THE NATION 

 

 

USE OF BLOCKCHAIN, DIGITAL ID AND E-MONEY WOULD HELP ENSURE THE NEEDY GET THEIR ENTITLED BENEFITS, CONFERENCE HEARS

 

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES – particularly blockchain, digital ID, and e-money – are being proposed by a research institute as the best sustainable solution for dealing with corruption and other problems in distributing social welfare.

 

The Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) has suggested the adoption of digital technologies to solve the chronic problem of corruption in the state welfare system. Their recommendation follows an investigation that found government staff unlawfully took the majority of the welfare money destined for those who need financial assistance in 67 out of 77 provinces.

 

Those at TDRI’s annual public conference held in Bangkok yesterday heard that corrupt officials use a loophole in the current welfare distribution system to benefit themselves. Use of new digital technology would seal these loopholes to ensure those needing special assistance from the state would actually get their welfare, researchers said.

 

TDRI researcher Boonwara Sumano pointed to two major weak points in the current welfare distribution system: identification of the persons eligible for subsidies, and the delivery of their welfare payments. 

 

Boonwara said that processes for identifying the target groups of recipients and the appropriate welfare payment were inefficient and vulnerable to corruption. For example, she said, corrupt officials could simply use the national ID numbers of other persons in order to collect the money intended for those who were actually entitled to it. Solving that problem will need going beyond remedial measures already proposed, she said.

 

“There are suggestions to use bank transfers instead of directly distribute the welfare in cash to the people entitled to the state subsidy,” Boonwara said. “However, this method, though safer and harder to defraud, still has a problem in real implementation: Not all people, especially the poor and marginalised groups of people, have a bank account, with only 81 per cent of Thai citizens owning at least one bank account.”

 

Boonwara also said bank transfers were not safe from corruption. There were cases of fraud under this method of welfare distribution, as the corrupt officials can simply switch the destination bank accounts to the accounts of their relatives. 

 

The latest example of this fraud involved the scholarship fund for poor female students, the Educational Fund for Life Development, from which more than Bt88 million was transferred to the bank accounts of corrupt officers and their relatives.

 

Given the problems with the traditional way for distributing welfare, Suttipong Kanakakorn, a member of the technical working group on national digital ID, suggested the fix lies with the new technologies of blockchain, digital ID, and e-money.

 

Suttipong said using blockchain would prove more efficient at preventing fraud in welfare distribution, as the information stored in a blockchain system is very easy to inspect and examine by all stakeholders.

 

Moreover, he said, distributing welfare funds by using e-money would be much easier for the people in need, who could collect the money directly while also spending it on lower-cost goods and services by just scanning a QR Code, using their national ID, or biometric identification.

 

Suttipong said that since many marginalised groups of people often have neither national ID cards nor bank accounts, digital ID could be adopted as the solution. Relevant agencies could survey and collect biometric information from these citizens and register their digital ID. Then welfare recipients could use their digital ID to receive their payments as e-money and spend it by using their digital ID in cash-free transactions.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30345387

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-05-15

[YetAnother]

56 minutes ago, webfact said:

chronic problem of corruption in the state welfare system. Their recommendation follows an investigation that found government staff unlawfully took the majority of the welfare money destined for those who need financial assistance in 67 out of 77 provinces.

the 10 provinces must have been sleeping; changing the channels ,such as upping technology, will only help if those systems minimize the interactions of People; corruption is in the Thai DNA

[Samui Bodoh]

It is not that difficult to deter/defeat corruption; you need three elements to make a serious dent immediately;

 

• Hire honest people. Yes, I know that sounds superfluous, but remember the entire scandal with regards to payments to the destitute started with ONE honest student. If Thai bureaucrats were taught basic honesty, a large portion of the theft would disappear overnight.
• Use audits properly. Audits, when done properly, usually catch theft, or at least theft on a larger scale. Again, using the recent and on-going theft of monies for the destitute, did anyone ever ask one of the recipients "how much do you get every month?". Yes, it is that simple. If the answer is less that they should have, investigate.
• Punish the thieves. If a bureaucrat is caught stealing, do not 'transfer them to an inactive post', put their photograph on the front page of the newspaper, try them in court on an expedited time-scale, and toss their ass in jail. If the government would do this loudly and publicly, corruption would drop quickly and immediately on a VERY large scale.

 

There are other measures to follow, but the above would likely kill off more than 50% of the theft overnight. 

 

It isn't rocket science. If bureaucrats pay no price for stealing as the current practice goes, then they will steal. If they see their colleagues going to jail, they will think twice.

 

Duh!

 

Edited May 14, 2018 by Samui Bodoh
Lack of coffee

[mok199]

thailands lawlessness combined with shamlessness and entitlement is  too engrained ...expect the corruption and lawlessness to continue and somehow,add corruption losses into each equation,with added funds to ensure everyone gets their ''piece of the pie''.too many people are suffering while Thailand struggles with yet another ''probe''....

Edited May 14, 2018 by mok199
speliings

[rkidlad]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Tech could beat welfare corruption, experts say

Only if that tech is drones with machine guns closely monitoring the staff. 

[blackcab]

This is so easy to solve. Most Thai people have a Thai ID card. The ID card contains a biometric record of the holder's fingerprints.

 

So:

 

1. Every government department should use chip and pin card readers that can verify the holder's fingerprints.

 

Every time the holder uses a government service  (for example to apply for benefits) the card must be presented and verified with the holder's fingerprints.

 

2. Add a pin number facility to the ID cards.

 

3. Use the citizen ID number on the card as a bank account number where the government can deposit benefits.

 

4. Enable to cards to work in the ATMs of government banks.

 

You would need very little extra hardware to make this work, and some software. The cards exist and the ATM networks exist already.

 

The whole process is digital and traceable.

[mikebell]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Bt88 million was transferred to the bank accounts of corrupt officers and their relatives.

Presumably using technology.  When severe penalties are inflicted sufficient to deter the average official who are all on the take, the problem will go away.

[Cadbury]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES – particularly blockchain, digital ID, and e-money – are being proposed by a research institute as the best sustainable solution for dealing with corruption and other problems in distributing social welfare.

Yes it could, but what a shameful admission. What is wrong with honesty or even forcing civil servants by penalty to become honest?

Or is dishonesty now being accepted without fight as a way of life for Thai civil servants and part of the culture. How about trying to change the culture or is that an impossible task? It seems the last resort to prevent this dishonesty is to use digital technology. What a sorry state of affairs.

The findings and related penalties coming out of the enquiry by PACC into the rorting of money from the destitute may be the final confirmation as to how much the ethics of the civil service  has deteriorated.

Those masters of corruption within will now have to learn a new set of skills to get around the digital technology but I doubt that will be a worry to them. 

[PatOngo]

1 hour ago, mikebell said:

Presumably using technology.  When severe penalties are inflicted sufficient to deter the average official who are all on the take, the problem will go away.

In order for the problem to "go away", you have to want it to "go away" and I don't think anyone who's benefitting want's it to go away! Also the ones who hand down the severe penalties are just as crooked!

[observer90210]

Fully agree with some other similar idea.

 

In the land of no-name-no-shame, a nice finger pointing group photo (as they do them so well) of those flawlessly prooved guilty , published all over, with name and the shame, will be a strong deterrent.

[Anak Nakal]

This is problem with bureaucrat.

Fix bureaucrat!

 

[Oziex1]

Anyone looked up the word "ethics" in the Thai dictionary?

 

Don't bother its not there.

[Lucky mike]

No desire for change ! So no change.......

[KiwiKiwi]

7 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

It is not that difficult to deter/defeat corruption; you need three elements to make a serious dent immediately;

 

• Hire honest people. Yes, I know that sounds superfluous, but remember the entire scandal with regards to payments to the destitute started with ONE honest student. If Thai bureaucrats were taught basic honesty, a large portion of the theft would disappear overnight.
• Use audits properly. Audits, when done properly, usually catch theft, or at least theft on a larger scale. Again, using the recent and on-going theft of monies for the destitute, did anyone ever ask one of the recipients "how much do you get every month?". Yes, it is that simple. If the answer is less that they should have, investigate.
• Punish the thieves. If a bureaucrat is caught stealing, do not 'transfer them to an inactive post', put their photograph on the front page of the newspaper, try them in court on an expedited time-scale, and toss their ass in jail. If the government would do this loudly and publicly, corruption would drop quickly and immediately on a VERY large scale.

 

There are other measures to follow, but the above would likely kill off more than 50% of the theft overnight. 

 

It isn't rocket science. If bureaucrats pay no price for stealing as the current practice goes, then they will steal. If they see their colleagues going to jail, they will think twice.

 

Duh!

 

 

Better investment not to prosecute them. Then, if you need a friend in the future (say, perhaps you are charged with corruption), you can always call in the marker/favour. Can't do that if they do prison time.

 

The IOU culture is the main reason why corruption will always be endemic in primitive and paternalistic societies.

Edited May 15, 2018 by KiwiKiwi

[AsiaHand]

7 hours ago, YetAnother said:

the 10 provinces must have been sleeping; changing the channels ,such as upping technology, will only help if those systems minimize the interactions of People; corruption is in the Thai DNA

True statement YetAnother,It is in their DNA from the time that the military and the big money people humpteen years ago  found out that by cooperating they could be in charge of LOS for "EVER" As the citizens see this trickle effect of corruption they in turn learn of no other way that there is to live .It is a wonder that there isn't a high school or university course in the basics of corruption here with an advance degree in "How to hid it from the public".

 

 

 

[Enoon]

"Good" technology + "Bad" people = same result as before.

 

All systems can be corrupted and abused.

 

 

[Poottrong]

9 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

It is not that difficult to deter/defeat corruption; you need three elements to make a serious dent immediately;

 

• Hire honest people. Yes, I know that sounds superfluous, but remember the entire scandal with regards to payments to the destitute started with ONE honest student. If Thai bureaucrats were taught basic honesty, a large portion of the theft would disappear overnight.
• Use audits properly. Audits, when done properly, usually catch theft, or at least theft on a larger scale. Again, using the recent and on-going theft of monies for the destitute, did anyone ever ask one of the recipients "how much do you get every month?". Yes, it is that simple. If the answer is less that they should have, investigate.
• Punish the thieves. If a bureaucrat is caught stealing, do not 'transfer them to an inactive post', put their photograph on the front page of the newspaper, try them in court on an expedited time-scale, and toss their ass in jail. If the government would do this loudly and publicly, corruption would drop quickly and immediately on a VERY large scale.

 

There are other measures to follow, but the above would likely kill off more than 50% of the theft overnight. 

 

It isn't rocket science. If bureaucrats pay no price for stealing as the current practice goes, then they will steal. If they see their colleagues going to jail, they will think twice.

 

Duh!

 

Clearly it is incredibly difficult to overcome otherwise it would have been accomplished decades ago not only here but in Africa, Middle East etc.

 

While it sounds simple  your 3 bullet points would require a society wide rewiring of mores, tradition, and culture while at the same time overcoming a highly motivated and entrenched establishment.

 

 

[Chomper Higgot]

Tech is going to be used to prevent the welfare scroungers of the corporate world putting a hand-out to the state for subsidies to the low wages paid to their works?!

 

Great news.

[Redline]

That’s why they don’t do it