Corruption situation in Thailand improving with less kickbacks paid this year

[webfact]

Corruption situation improving with less kickbacks paid this year



BANGKOK: -- Corruption situation in the country is improving with index rising from 49 to 55 from previous survey last year.

Meanwhile kickback payment also improved from previous payment of 30% of national budget falling to 10%.

The University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC) rector Ms Sawanee Thairungroj said surveys of 2,400 samples from groups of people, entrepreneurs in the private sector and government officials in the public sector in June this year had revealed that corruption situation has improved with index rising to 55 from 49 from previous survey in December last year.

She said this showed that the corruption situation in the country was improving.

She said a drop of every 5 points in the corruption index represented a one percentage point growth in GDP.

For damages caused by corruption as assessed from national budget in procurement projects spent by government agencies, she said private operators getting government contracts have to pay 1-15% of national budget as kickbacks to corrupted officials or an average 10%, down from 30% two years ago, the lowest kickback payments in six years.

Meanwhile UTTC’s Centre for Economics and Business Forecasting director Dr Tanawat Pholvichai said a drop in corruption index of one point means a 10,000 million baht saved from national budget.

He said after the military power seizure and its serious tackling of corruption problem, kickback payments dropped from 152-200 billion baht to 53-100 billion baht, or an equivalent of 150-180 billion baht saved from national budget.

He was optimistic that this year the Thai economy will be injected with more cash in history to stimulate economy, and 4% forecast growth could be achieved.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/corruption-situation-improving-with-less-kickbacks-paid-this-year


-- Thai PBS 2015-08-13

[canopus1969]

Now, who paid for this survey...

[PatOngo]

Yes, it's all on the approved spreadsheet!...........ONLY 53 -100 billion baht..........well done!

[NongKhaiKid]

Of course everyone who took part in the survey told the absolute truth !

[h90]

before Thaksin it was a 0-10 % kickback...so maybe average 5%.

That went up to average 30%....considering that there are still honest people how much kickback did the corrupt put into their pockets?

[candide]

It's written in the OP that they surveyed government officials. Did they ask them how much they take? Ex. "This year we only take 10% instead of 30% last year"

[deckape]

I believe everything I read.

[clockman]

Another flying pig story!

[thesetat2013]

Kickbacks??? Thais don't give those! Being the current govs fight with corruption just which person stated they received kickbacks. So this is just another pointless propaganda tool to make people see how good things are getting

[z42]

she said private operators getting government contracts have to pay 1-15% of national budget as kickbacks to corrupted officials or an average 10%, down from 30% two years ago..... What BS, why do they "have to" pay anything. Throw these thieving parasite officials in jail and get honest ones to fill the void.

Selective enforcement when it comes to misappropriation of public funds seems to have the desired effect. People who know they can do it do, and people who think 'why not' have a little dabble and in most cases help themselves to some ill gotten gains. Despicable as can be.

All dirty officials deserve to be strung up.. Their gall is the most shocking part

[ChrisY1]

More fictional propaganda.........paybacks will never stop.....it's just part of the business plan!

[lildragon]

They have decreased because the prices on the kickbacks have increased. Ying and yang.

[Always18]

Did the survey include the question "Are you going to tell the truth, knowing that you will face criminal prosecution if you lie?"

No, didn't think so.................

[djjamie]

I was a bit dubious about this claim so instead of a simple minded one sentence quip on TVF denouncing it from an agenda driven angle with noon facts to back up the statement I decided to look up some statistics to allow me to have a better understanding of the situation and to offer input based on facts.

I found that in 2014 Thailand moved up the corruption index (less corruption) from 102nd place to 85th as shown here. This is from an entity that have no affiliation with the Junta and have no agenda driven bias. Of course this is of no surprise considering that corruption was endemic as witnessed by the rice scheme and there is only one thing it can do when a new govt come in and that is to improve. It could not go down further.

It will be nice to see it further improve when the new figures come out this December.

Edited August 13, 2015 by djjamie

[webfact]

Graft becoming less of a problem, survey finds
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The graft problem has been easing greatly with the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce's "corruption index" surging to 55 points in June - its highest level in six years - from 49 in December.

Meanwhile the proportion of private enterprises coerced into paying bribes plunged to only 6 per cent from 75 per cent in 2013.

"The improving score was due to stringent law enforcement under Article 44 [of the junta's provisional charter], serious suppression of corruption in many government agencies and the current government's policy to crack down on corruption," Thanavath Phonvichai, director of the UTCC's Economic and Business Forecasting Centre, said Thursday.

The higher the score, the better the situation.

The university's survey with 2,400 respondents from business and the government sector found that spending for bribery also decreased to Bt100 billion from Bt180 billion in the last survey.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Graft-becoming-less-of-a-problem-survey-finds-30266509.html

-- The Nation 2015-08-13

[Thailand]

Perhaps those receiving and giving kickbacks are simply not reporting as much as they did before believing it may be detrimental to their future incomes?

[hiwave]

Logically to include a figure stating less kickbacks they must have provable data to back it up, if this is the case it should be a simple matter of accessing the data and arresting the people involved for corruption, or would that be too easy?

[pokerface1]

Corruption is the icing on the cake or sometimes the whole cake. Deals get signed off based on everyone getting what they want with protection money just in case the deal flops with those responsible loosing their jobs or worse. I guess this is basically the reason for the kick back.

If the number of kickback deals are reduced then the economy will slow down no doubt. A better scenario would be just a reduction in the amounts paid on each deal.

Corruption is not a dirty word, neither is the word Business, neither is the word kickback they only appear that way when you are not getting your fair share

[brucec64]

I was a bit dubious about this claim so instead of a simple minded one sentence quip on TVF denouncing it from an agenda driven angle with noon facts to back up the statement I decided to look up some statistics to allow me to have a better understanding of the situation and to offer input based on facts.

I found that in 2014 Thailand moved up the corruption index (less corruption) from 102nd place to 85th as shown here. This is from an entity that have no affiliation with the Junta and have no agenda driven bias. Of course this is of no surprise considering that corruption was endemic as witnessed by the rice scheme and there is only one thing it can do when a new govt come in and that is to improve. It could not go down further.

It will be nice to see it further improve when the new figures come out this December.

As usual, more misinformation. If you bothered to look at the facts that you love to spout, you would see that of the 12 data sources used in the 2014 evaluation, all data was collected in 2013 or early 2014 (before the coup), except for one data source that was from Jan 2014 to Aug 2014, and one until July 2014.

So actually Yingluck gets the credit for the improvement, but thank you for supplying the facts.

[NCFC]

Ha Ha Ha, Jamie got owned....again.

[Thai at Heart]

All absolutely unmeasurable.

How many individuals went to jail for corruption this year versus last.

They can lock up 1000 civil servants or govt employees a year for the next 50 years, and it still won't touch the sides

[realenglish1]

I feel so much better knowing that they can track the amount of corruption is down They must have a lot of people viewing it in the backrooms

of Thailand . GIVE ME A BREAK

Are Thais that stupid that they will believe this kind of propaganda

[oneday]

I'm here to tell the Thailand government that graft is still alive and kicking in our land office in Kalasin and most likely every single land office in Thailand. If there is one government office that needs reform and set prices it is land offices.

We had to pay 26,000 just to get a reasonably timely measuring of the land so 3 new Chanotes could be made from one Chanote of 7 rai, just so we could have our own Chanote for our 1.5 rai. This was more than 50% of our land cost. The wife was blatantly told it was that much because it had to be divided between too many people. If we were not heading to the US for a long time we would have just waited the ridiculous 8 months they gave us before the land could be measured. Now we still have to wait 3 more months to actually get the Chanote.

Edited August 14, 2015 by oneday

[does]

Please read comment 14. I'd give te same advice to the first 8 or so shoot-from--the-hip commentors.

It's unfortunate that TV commentors include so many cynics.

Now, who paid for this survey...

Edited August 14, 2015 by does

[Lovekorat]

I always enjoy a good laugh over breakfast.

And this lot provide one nearly every day.

The information that corruption is down presumably coming from the accounts of these people logged under corrupt payments received?

Reality check needed please.......oh and by the way please don't treat us as idiots by publishing this rubbish even though it is funny

[Orac]

The figure given is a percentage of the national budget, not necessarily what has actually been spent. Since there is a huge delay in spending parts of the budget which is one of the reasons the GDP is falling it could be the 'special commisions' just have not been paid yet.

[godden]

Dam, so that's why i didn't get my brown envelope this month.

[sammygood]

who measures and with what tool that there is being less corruption being paid ?

is there a corruption declaration website somewhere where people can report themselves ?

[tigermoth]

What a load of bullshit. By its very nature no one knows who gets kickbacks and how much. All we know that you can still get anything you want in this country just by paying someone.

[Fat Haggis]

Because everyone admits to acts of corruption so it can be documented like ?

Corruption is a way of life here, it only gets highlighted AFTER people get caught, if they don't get caught, how do you register it?