New database targets road project corruption
Move aims to ease suffering of locals
The Centre for National Anti-Corruption (CNAC) has set up a database which will reveal information on local governing bodies’ road construction projects to the public as part of a move to ensure transparency.
Public Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) secretary-general Prayong Preeyajit, in his capacity as secretary of the CNAC, yesterday said the CNAC has collaborated with the Comptroller-General’s Department (CGD) and the Electronic Government Agency (EGA) to put together a database covering civil works and road construction and road repair projects operated by more than 7,000 local administrative organisations nationwide.
The CNAC is a national agency set up by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to integrate and coordinate the work of various anti-graft agencies to ensure efficiency in graft-fighting operations.
The CNAC is chaired by Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya.
The move is aimed at ensuring transparency in the project procurement process as well as easing the suffering of local residents affected by damage to roads caused by substandard construction work.
The database gathers and provides details of the costs of these projects so people can help scrutinise and monitor them.
If people are affected by construction projects, they can lodge complaints with the PACC, which will relay the complainants’ queries to relevant local bodies to solve the problems, Mr Prayong said.
The PACC has no authority to repair any damaged roads, but it has the authority to alert state agencies to fix the damage and initiate an investigation, he said.
Mr Prayong said the CNAC will also set median prices for projects to ensure fairness to all sides, as well as come up with the standard road construction layout for these construction projects to be followed nationwide.
Sak Sekkhuntod, director of the EGA, said the EGA has worked with the CGD to help develop the database providing information on state project procurement which is readily accessible online to the public.
The public can learn what projects are under way in their localities, what state agencies are responsible for undertaking them, and how much money has been spent on them.
Mr Sak said the EGA will consider developing a smartphone application to give people even easier access to the database and take photos of any problems in projects and send them as evidence to the PACC.
This will help boost the public’s role in monitoring state projects, he said.
Meanwhile, Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) chief Seehanat Prayoonrat said that Amlo, with the help of SAS Software (Thailand), a Thai unit of US analytics software company SAS Institute, has adopted data analytics technology as a tool to detect and analyse suspicious financial transaction data in a bid to boost efficiency in combating money laundering.
Pol Col Seehanat said that Amlo is alerted by commercial banks to many suspicious financial transactions occurring every day; therefore, it needs to obtain efficient technology to examine and analyse the information.