PM ‘accountable’ if 104 anti-graft agencies fail
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Arn Ao Ruang’s column in the Thai Post newspaper yesterday focused on the clarification given by Budget Bureau director Somsak Choterattanasiri on how this year’s budget needs to fund the integrated efforts by all anti-graft agencies to combat corruption in government bureaucracy.
The move to fund the agencies is the first of its kind this year by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who is now head of the new anticorruption committee which oversees all anticorruption agencies.
Mr Somsak said the budget for this year was set at 2.1 billion baht and it will be increased to 4.6 billion baht next year for all 104 units tasked with tackling graft in government bureaucracy.
The writer admitted openly that it was the first time he had heard about the 104 government units responsible for tackling corruption. And he questioned why corruption is still rampant.
He said he didn’t mind how much money all these units are allocated, even though 4.6 billion baht to fight corruption was a bit excessive. Arn believes that none of the budget should be used to fund overseas trips by members of these units to observe anti-corruption efforts in other countries.
The big question is, now we have 104 units, why is corruption still widespread? Which areas of bureaucracy are the most corrupt and how can it be resolved? Asked the writer.
The assumption is that the 104 units have failed miserably and if they are to be given a budget to combat corruption, they need to be completely overhauled first.
Also, since all the 104 units are within government bureaucracy, he doubts if any of them would dare challenge their political bosses.
The writer went on to say that Prime Minister Prayut, as head of the new anti-corruption committee, must be held accountable if all 104 units fail again after using their budget.
“He [Prayut] cannot behave like Yingluck Shinawatra who said she knew nothing and saw nothing when asked about the massive corruption in the rice-pledging scheme, despite the fact that she was the chair of the National Rice Policy Committee,” the writer concluded.