How Do We Stop Them From Stealing Flood-Relief Funds?: Thai Talk

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THAI TALK

How do we stop them from stealing flood-relief funds?

Suthichai Yoon

The Nation

The government says it plans to spend Bt800,000 million in post-flood relief and rehabilitation efforts. The first question from a sceptical public is not how the money is going to be spent. It's how much of it will not be spent on the flood victims.

Thais have got used to stories about money from huge projects requiring large amounts of tax money being pocketed by politicians and bureaucrats who are so versatile in exploiting legal loopholes that, despite all efforts trying to keep corruption at bay, they can always find a way of stealing the public's money.

Premier Yingluck Shinawatra, whether she wants it or not, now gets an offer from the business community to help monitor the way the flood-relief budget is being disbursed.

In fact, the Counter Corruption Commission (CCC) has on its own come up with a new tool to make all deals between government agencies and their contractors more transparent. For the first time, any firm that has won a contract from a government agency for over Bt2 million will have to fill in forms that detail their income and expenses and all financial items that are directly related to the deal. In an unprecedented move, the CCC even demands that the contractor show the "bottom line" of each government project. That means the public will, under the new set of rules, be able to ascertain how much profit (or, in that unlikely scenario, loss) the contractor makes, and why, and how.

At the same time, the Anti-Corruption Network, which comprises the country's biggest and most influential business, banking and industrial associations, as well as other non-government organisations, has proposed to the Yingluck government to undertake three major steps to ensure transparency in the use of the flood-relief budget.

First, the government must make public all details of projects that come under the scheme on a website, to underscore the sense of accountability on the part of the government.

"Real-time" details about each project's financial status, and the median prices and profiles of the contractors must be made available to the public. The previous practice of producing such reports three months after a project kicked off will not be acceptable anymore.

The second requirement that the public wants implemented to ensure a high degree of accountability is that the government must put in place an audit mechanism that will check on every item of the project. Apart from the government's audit agencies, the government must open the way for private-sector monitoring groups to be allowed to participate in the process in an open and transparent manner. Anyone found guilty of breaking the budgetary spending rules must be punished.

The third part of the proposal is for the Cabinet to promptly set in motion the CCC's new rules in checking up on all deals between government agencies and private contractors.

Do we know how our tax money can be siphoned off into private pockets? The tricks and "secret deals" are no secret. The solution is how to keep track and snare the big fish.

Corrupt politicians and bureaucrats will try to circumvent the rules and regulations by resorting to " special purchase practices" which, under the long-established rules, can waive the basic requirements of setting the "median price" for each tender for government schemes. In other words, under-the-table deals can be made and dirty money can be passed without being detected.

Duplication of tasks by concerned government agencies could open the way for corruption - and without an efficient evaluation system, the flood-relief fund could be easily misspent.

Equally scandalous is the well-known practice of a politician or official farming out "projects" under the post-flood reconstruction scheme to their own dummy companies or cronies who have access to "inside information" on upcoming tenders for government contracts.

How effective this move is to plug the loopholes against all those dirty hands in power remains to be seen. But one consolation, at least, is that the private sector has never been so aggressive in protecting the people's tax money.

It is also the first time that the public's distrust of how the establishment spends our money in the name of helping our fellow countrymen has become a matter of serious and urgent concern.

-- The Nation 2011-12-29

[goober]

How do you stop a human from breathing?

There is your answer.

[mca]

When I read reports about the folks getting shafted again by somebody with the morals of the average sewer rat ( tainted milk schemes, rural school computer cash going in somebody's pocket etc) I'm only half joking when I'd like to see them grovelling for their worthless lives before being strung up at Ratchadamri stadium by the authorities with a sign around their necks saying " I betrayed my people"

Couple of hangings as examples might make the rest think twice.

Day dreaming again...

[phiphidon]

It is also the first time that the public's distrust of how the establishment spends our money in the name of helping our fellow countrymen has become a matter of serious and urgent concern.

It certainly didn't seem to be much of a concern to the previous administration - as evidenced by the award of the lucrative Interior Ministry portfolio to the democrats coalition partners, the Bhum Jai Thai party. Well that's the payback that has to be made when you need the Friends of Newins' (and the Armys) help to form a government.

[maidu]

Tough to change a trait that's ingrained in the Thai character (similar to others' around the world). When money moves around, the people who are in the conduit want to take some or all of it - money and Johnny Walker whiskey, and sometimes jelly donuts.

It's yet another way for the rich to get filthier rich. No amount of filling out forms (as Ms Yingluck suggests) is going to stem the parade of morally bereft scoundrels. It's a very stratified social ladder here in Thailand, with Burmese and Laotian immigrants (and hill tribers) at the bottom rungs.

[hellodolly]

Tough to change a trait that's ingrained in the Thai character (similar to others' around the world). When money moves around, the people who are in the conduit want to take some or all of it - money and Johnny Walker whiskey, and sometimes jelly donuts.

It's yet another way for the rich to get filthier rich. No amount of filling out forms (as Ms Yingluck suggests) is going to stem the parade of morally bereft scoundrels. It's a very stratified social ladder here in Thailand, with Burmese and Laotian immigrants (and hill tribers) at the bottom rungs.

What you say is very true but this time it is going to affect many people in a monetary way that they can see.

5,000 baht and they have 40,000 baht worth of damage. They can see this and understand it with there eyes.

[Orac]

The only way to reduce the amount of corruption in government here is to actually punish them when they are caught - there are plenty of cases where there is evidence of graft where the politicians/beauracrats/officials are just 'moved to an inactive post' and the whole affair is brushed under the carpet.

[Moruya]

The only way to reduce the amount of corruption in government here is to actually punish them when they are caught - there are plenty of cases where there is evidence of graft where the politicians/beauracrats/officials are just 'moved to an inactive post' and the whole affair is brushed under the carpet.

In China they execute them - yet you still get people doing it.

[fresnoboy]

"In China they execute them - yet you still get people doing it. "

Yes but, the same ones don't do it again, and again !!

[pimay11]

"In China they execute them - yet you still get people doing it. "

Yes but, the same ones don't do it again, and again !!

+1

[travelmann]

The only way to reduce the amount of corruption in government here is to actually punish them when they are caught - there are plenty of cases where there is evidence of graft where the politicians/beauracrats/officials are just 'moved to an inactive post' and the whole affair is brushed under the carpet.

In China they execute them - yet you still get people doing it.

NOT TWICE THOUGH!!!

[housepainter]

Change the name and then they'll be stealing something else.

Trust me.

It's the only way.

Next.

[moskito]

How do we stop them from stealing flood-relief funds?

we wont - TiT ...an ASIAN country

must be something this whole corruption thing....the chinese are doing businesses 3000 YEARS !!! LONGER than every longnose farang....so stealing money from others must be the final solution to all our problems?

[WarpSpeed]

Tough to change a trait that's ingrained in the Thai character (similar to others' around the world). When money moves around, the people who are in the conduit want to take some or all of it - money and Johnny Walker whiskey, and sometimes jelly donuts.

It's yet another way for the rich to get filthier rich. No amount of filling out forms (as Ms Yingluck suggests) is going to stem the parade of morally bereft scoundrels. It's a very stratified social ladder here in Thailand, with Burmese and Laotian immigrants (and hill tribers) at the bottom rungs.

What you say is very true but this time it is going to affect many people in a monetary way that they can see.

5,000 baht and they have 40,000 baht worth of damage. They can see this and understand it with there eyes.

Yeah pretty easy scam to take applications and then refuse them on the surface, run it through proper channels anyways as IF it was approved, pocket the money, claim it was paid to the victim and with the size of this catastrophe and the number of victims involved who'd know? Or for that matter even care in many cases and the victim has no real recourse under the circumstances if they even knew it ever happened.

[TAWP]

It is also the first time that the public's distrust of how the establishment spends our money in the name of helping our fellow countrymen has become a matter of serious and urgent concern.

It certainly didn't seem to be much of a concern to the previous administration - as evidenced by the award of the lucrative Interior Ministry portfolio to the democrats coalition partners, the Bhum Jai Thai party. Well that's the payback that has to be made when you need the Friends of Newins' (and the Armys) help to form a government.

Why the lack of outrage over Newin when he was a part of PPP and TRT?

[billd766]

It is also the first time that the public's distrust of how the establishment spends our money in the name of helping our fellow countrymen has become a matter of serious and urgent concern.

It certainly didn't seem to be much of a concern to the previous administration - as evidenced by the award of the lucrative Interior Ministry portfolio to the democrats coalition partners, the Bhum Jai Thai party. Well that's the payback that has to be made when you need the Friends of Newins' (and the Armys) help to form a government.

Why the lack of outrage over Newin when he was a part of PPP and TRT?

Double standards.

[Buchholz]

Senate worried about flood rehabilitation budget

BANGKOK, 24 January 2012 (NNT) – The Senate continues to review the 2012 annual appropriations draft bill before voting while casting fear over irregularities in the government’s spending on flood rehabilitation and the issuance of loan decrees.

Members of the Senate today met to ponder the draft bill of the 2012 government appropriations worth 2.38 trillion baht for the second day.

The Senate is deciding whether to approve the draft bill after the House of Representatives gave a nod to it earlier this month. The Senate’s decision on the draft bill is required to be made within 20 days from 9 January 2012.

The Senate meeting agreed the government should give precedence to the cost effectiveness and transparency of the flood rehabilitation budget worth 120 billion baht.

The majority of the senators also expressed concerns over the four loan decrees worth 350 billion baht, aimed at authorizing loans for water management and rebuilding the country.

They viewed that the decrees could be unlawful and cause public debt to increase.

-- NNT 2012-01-24

[Buchholz]

15 Billion Baht Approved for Rehabilitating Flooded Industrial Zones

The Cabinet has approved another 15 Billion Baht budget for post-flood rehabilitation schemes

The Cabinet approved an additional 15 billion baht budget today for post-flood rehabilitation, as proposed by the Strategic Committee for Reconstruction and Future Development or SCRF.

-- Tan Network 2012-01-25

Edited January 25, 2012 by Buchholz

[wintermute]

From whence will all this magic money come from spilling forth into the arms of Thai people?

[Roadman]

It is also the first time that the public's distrust of how the establishment spends our money in the name of helping our fellow countrymen has become a matter of serious and urgent concern.

One does not have to wonder why

when the name is Pheu Thai

[letitbe]

you cant stop them and who cares the Thai people voted for this lot of thieves let them suffer consequences

[Buchholz]

From whence will all this magic money come from spilling forth into the arms of Thai people?

Corporate Solutions for the Thai people.

[Buchholz]

Anti-Corruption Network keeps eye on flood rehabilitation budget

BANGKOK, 31 January 2012 (NNT) - The Anti-Corruption Network will launch the “Watchdog Project” with a call for volunteers nationwide to help prevent corruption, especially in the government's spending of the flood rehabilitation budget.

Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Network Pramont Sutheewong said after a meeting of 39 anti-corruption organizations that the Watchdog Project expected a volunteer turnout of 1,000 people.

He said the participants would be trained on legal principles, inspection and dissemination of reliable and effective information. The training will start on 1 March at the Thai Chamber of Commerce.

The network has also submitted a letter to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, urging her to put an emphasis on freedom to information about the flood rehabilitation budget worth 17 billion baht and inspection mechanisms.

The network requested the government to agree with the National Anti-Corruption Commission’s proposal that government units disclose the operating costs of their projects through an electronic database so that the public can examine.

-- NNT 2012-01-31

[Reasonableman]

How do you stop a human from breathing?

There is your answer.

Smothering with a pillow at birth... retrospectively? Is that possible??

[Oli23]

Anti-Corruption chamber is a funny name in this country. Kind of hotel?

[trainman34014]

you cant stop them and who cares the Thai people voted for this lot of thieves let them suffer consequences

It doesn't matter who they vote for, the colour of the flag doesn't make a scrap of difference, they are ALL THIEVES.

[wintermute]

Anti-Corruption chamber is a funny name in this country. Kind of hotel?

I've always wondered how much graft goes into the pockets of these guys. In order to be anti-graft someone has to be paying you under the table to wipe out the competition.

[swillowbee]

... you know ... maybe Thailand should just go back to the roots of Thai values ... a grand do-over ... tryinry giving up on this Buddhist thing, and maybe try Islam, or Christianity, or worshipping rocks, or something ... most anything would be better than what they got.

... seems that the Thai's greed is far more powerful than the Buddha.

[TAWP]

How about, dropping religion completely and becoming humanitarians?