Graft and Corruption Inseparable From Thailand's Bureaucracy by Phairath Khampha 31 August 2000 A cancer eating at the heart of society Corruption is so ingrained in Thailand's government bureaucracy that the two have become inseparable, according to a report recently released by Thailand's National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC). While all government agencies were afflicted with some degree of corruption, those of the education, agriculture and interior ministries are the most corrupt, the report said. The NCCC report frequently quoted the Civil Service Commission, which provided information indicating that corruption affects all levels of Thailand's officialdom. However, middle-ranking officials are more corrupt than their senior or junior counterparts, the NCCC said. It found medium-rank officers in the provincial education offices to be the most venal, most of whom had an arrogant attitude that it was their right to steal from the people. Corruption most often occurs in offices involved in the delivery of public services, auditing operations, justice administration, government purchasing, and the awarding of government contracts, the report said. Still, no agency was found to be immune to corruption, which often involves the highest and the lowest levels of the hierarchy, the report said. Just how the spoils are shared depends upon the rank of the individuals involved. At the sub-ministry level, the Customs Department, the National Police Bureau, the Revenue Department, the Land Department and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration were the most notorious for corruption, the report said. The NCCC outlined the typical characteristics of bureaucratic corruption: Bureaucrats often use red tape to their advantage. Business people were willing to pay bribes to cut through the red tape purely out of practical business considerations. As a result, bureaucrats had the power to seek bribes, which they often shared with their junior public servants. This enables them to develop a sort of immunity from being exposed or prosecuted by making sure others would be involved if that happens. Junior officers who refuse to accept bribes on moral grounds are usually ostracised by the senior peers and find that advancement is nigh near impossible. In other words, those who refuse to participate in illegal activities are doomed to remain in lowly, poorly paid positions. Corruption is so entrenched that there is nearly no way to report such activities and threats because even those who would control such problems are themselves very venal and open to receiving illicit money. Politicians also share in the spoils. Bureaucrats who have their sights set on a potentially profitable job wbribe the politicians in charge of their ministries or offices. The directorship-general of a Grade-A department may cost 30 million baht US$1=41 Thai baht); that of a Grade-B department, 20 million baht; of a Grade-C department, 10 million baht. The directorship-general posts at departments that purchase tens of millions of baht in goods and services may cost as much as 50 million baht. People are willing to "purchase" these positions because they then can skim off many times more that amount while they fill that position. Hence, the bribe is a sort of "investment", that is all. The cost of this to the Thai public and the nation as a whole is horrendous and often exceed the GDP, hence why Thailand suffered the economic crash of 1997. In effect more wealth was being stolen than was being generated. This, of course, is invisible on official paper and the economic analyses generated either by corrupt auditors, or by very naive foreign financial analysts. Government officials involved in the purchasing and the awarding of government contracts are especially vulnerable to corruption, the NCCC report said. Government purchasing agents often pocket the difference between the actual sales price and the artificially increased listed sales price. Those who award contracts tend to collect a "commission" ranging from 2 to 10 percent. The CCC said 27,000 cases of corruption involving 40,000 people were investigated between 1997 and 1999. Evidence of guilt was found in 801 disciplinary investigations involving 1,800 people. Evidence of criminal guilt was found in 817 cases involving more than 2,400 people. Of these, 39 people involved in 15 cases were placed on administrative leave. Typically the penalty is light, such as administrative leave or demotion hence there is little incentive to stop being corrupt. The reason for this is that those who impose the penalties themselves are corrupt and the whole process, although hypocritical, would seem even more so to those involved in the rackets. Hnece, those who are caught are not being penalized for a crime they have committed, but in effect rather for being stupid enough to be caught doing it. More than 26,000 cases involving 36,000 people were rejected as groundless, the CSC said. More than 2,800 cases were still pending. A social cancer The report on corruption among government officials released annually by the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) was a constant reminder that the crime, even among the majority of government officials, continues to be pretty much a fact of life in Thailand. This is in spite of the aspiration of the Thai people, who supposedly seek to institute such lofty principles as sound governance, transparency and accountability, which are key requisites for a well-functioning democracy. The report was useful in giving a rough idea of how alive and well this deep-rooted evil is in Thailand's political, social and cultural life. It is by no means a definitive indicator of how widespread corruption is. Most of the hundreds of corruption cases listed by the report must be petty wrongdoings committed by junior officials while a handful of the more blatant crimes involve middle-level to senior bureaucrats. The incidence of corruption among government officials portrayed by the report is only the tip of the iceberg. The vast majority of corrupt officials keep escaping detection and punishment because they are protected by the shared interests and good connections they have with their supervisors, influential people or politicians, people who profit from the corruption as the middle and junior bureaucrats give their senior people a percentage of what they steal. Most cases of corruption go undetected because of collusion between bribe-takers and bribe-payers. It is not surprising that findings from various opinion polls on the perceived prevalence of corruption in government agencies usually rank as the most corrupt the Customs Department, Education Department Police Department, Revenue Department, Land Department and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. But corruption takes place at all government agencies although there are some agencies that are more susceptible to the crime. These corruption-prone agencies are those whose duty it is to provide public services but which also typically exercise discretionary powers in enforcing rules and regulations, administering justice, and procurement of goods. Another no less vicious form of corruption - which is political in nature - involves the buying of favours in the recruitment or promotion of government officials. The negative effects of corruption have weakened Thai society for a long time. Although the impact of corruption did not have directly contributed to the 1997 economic crisis, widespread corrupt practices it is now known to have aggravated the downfall. Thailand's Constitution has clearly defined the principles and values of transparency and accountability by establishing a number of independent agencies to monitor and audit the exercise of power by government officials. The charter also guarantees the rights of citizens to access official information, and requires holders of public offices to publicly declare their assets upon taking and leaving their positions. It seems that transparency and accountability are becoming important concepts that could transform the bureaucracy and reform politics. Unfortunately, corruption is much more difficult to deal with given the widespread tolerance of corruption by the Thai people, who are very comfortable with the patronage system of relationships. Promoting public awareness among people and putting in place preventive measures must top any effective anti-corruption campaign. People must realise that corruption is like a cancer that is spreading, weakening and even destroying whatever economic, social, political developments that Thailand and any country has achieved. Fighting corruption is also most relevant to Thailand which is struggling on the road toward economic recovery and trying to rejoin the global economy as a competitive member. It cannot be emphasised strongly enough that this is a matter of urgency. The latest survey of Transparency International in 1999 ranked Thailand among the most corrupt nations. Either put up a strong fight against corruption, or Thailand will have to be content with languishing in a vicious circle that causes interminable sufferings at home, while the country continues to be a second-class citizen in the international community. Businessmen see bribes as the norm About 79 percent of polled businessmen in Thailand said it was common to bribe civil servants to oil the wheels, according to a Thai Chamber of Commerce University survey. About 52 percent said they even knew how much they should pay and how to get it to corrupt civil servants without any prior negotiation, said Saowanee Thairungroj, dean of the university's economics faculty. About 25 percent of those surveyed said certain government officials set their own pay-off figures, while 23 percent said they had to decide how much they would offer. Respondents believed that in the case of irregularities occurring, filing complaints with the corrupt staff's superiors would be fruitless because the superiors would be in on the scam, getting some percentage of the take. Each year business people in Thailand pay an average of 60,793 Baht to the Customs Department, 29,445 Baht to the procurement and employment divisions in each government agency and 19,757 Baht to the Revenue Department, the survey said. The average working Thai earns around 2,000 Baht per month. The procurement and employment divisions demanded "tea money" the most often, Saowanee said. About 57 percent of the total number of encounters with these divisions resulted in businessmen being asked for bribes to ensure that they would be awarded contracts, the survey said. Thus, contracts in effect were "sold" to the highest bidder--he or she who bid the highest bribe. Eighteen percent of the entrepreneurs questioned said they were required to pay bribes ranging from 1 to 5 percent of a contract's value. Eleven percent said they had to pay between 6 and 10 percent, while 4.8 percent needed to pay between 11 and 15 percent of a contract's value. The entrepreneurs said they counted the bribes as part of their their investment costs. Furthermore, those surveyed said they would be willing to pay an additional 12.5 percent in tax if it would eradicate the corruption problem, Saowanee said. The entrepreneurs must want to tackle corruption more than any other problem, because they would be willing to pay less to solve other snags, he said, for example only an additional 10 percent in tax to get rid of crime. Average citizens must run gauntlet of abuse - Police, customs, tax and land officials line-up for bribes Business operators are forced to bribe state officials for better services and senior government officials have to buy their promotions, a Civil Service Commission seminar on corruption in Thailand was told on August 28. Pasuk Pongpaichit, of the Economics Faculty of Chulalongkorn University, said citizens are used to the fact they have to resort to bribes when dealing with police, customs, tax, land or court officials. His research team came up with that conclusion when they surveyed the heads of 4,016 families in 1999 for the CSC. The family heads put corruption by state officials as the third biggest problem in society, after the economic downturn and the high cost of living. They said the least honest people were the police and Ministers of Parliament. They also felt politicians were more corrupt than civil servants and would cause corruption to increase in the future. Most people said that the reason Thailand was still a third world country was because of the corruption and that most of the wealth being generated was being stolen by the rich and by government officials. Another research study conducted by Saowanee Thairungrote, dean of Thai Chamber of Commerce University's Economics Faculty, found bribery in business was part of the nation's "tradition". About 80% of those questioned said they had to bribe state officials for better service and most of the money went to the Customs Department, she said. In another study by Supachai Yaowaprapas, associate professor of Chulalongkorn University's Political Science Faculty, half of the state officials surveyed admitted executive positions were sold in their agencies when director-general and secretary-general positions were up for grabs. Executive positions were for sale at the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, schools. The posts of centre and bureau directors as well as district chiefs were also for sale and the culprits were politicians and senior officials. Hence, administration of the country was very poor because any lazy fool could achieve important managerial position just by buying the position. Most Thais believed that senior government officials were completely incompetent and that all they did was spend their days trying to find ways to steal more money and not be caught. Niphon Puapongsakorn, advisor to the Thailand Development Research Institute, said corruption could be partly solved if the government reduced useless and unnecessary projects, most of which were implemented by corrupt officials and politicians for the sole purpose of having a project from which budget to then steal. He cited a multi-billion-baht project by the Agriculture and Agricultural Co-operatives Ministry to build silos nationwide. He said corruption was complicated and existed worldwide. In Thailand, politicians were usually corrupt in projects over 50-150 million baht while civil servants were corrupt in lesser projects. In procurement projects, suppliers have to pay bribes of over 20% of the total cost, he said.