Business Leaders: Corruption Severity Drops but Still Serious Problem

Tuesday 12 January 2016 17:09
A bi-annual study by Thailand's Private Sector Collective Action Coalition against Corruption (CAC) shows that 48% of key businessmen saw a continuous decline in severity of corruption problem in Thailand over the past two years while only 24% viewed the problem as being more severe. Still, 90% of respondents rated corruption level in Thailand at present as high or very high.

According to a survey of 828 directors and business leaders during August-December 2015, 44% had either high or very high confidence that corruption can be eradicated in the future, up from 35% in the previous poll conducted in 2013. Meanwhile, only 12% estimated that corruption drove operating cost higher by more than 20%, down sharply from 52% of respondents in 2013 survey, indicating continuous improvement in anti-corruption efforts over the past two years.

On the positive front, government processes that were prone to corruption risk but made substantial improvement over the past five years in the eyes of businessmen include business registration (20%), taxation (14%), and business licensing (11%). Among anti-corruption strategies that business leaders rated as highly effective were law enforcement in corruption in the macro level (32%) and the announcement/transfer of a list of suspected corrupt civil servants (11%).

The study also indicated higher level of awareness and alert by business leaders regarding their roles in anti-corruption efforts. Some 85% of respondents agreed that the private sector has either active or very active roles in tackling corruption, up from 72% in 2013 poll, while 65% said they have firm intention to co-operate in anti-corruption campaign while 33% said they are ready to co-operate should there be any workable plan.

The most common form of corruption perceived by business leaders were favoritism by political office holders (18%), gifts and bribe payment (16%), and policy corruption by politicians (15%). Government processes that are most vulnerable to corruption risks were public procurement and government project auction (28%) and registration and licensing (18%) while sectors that tended to involve with corruption were property (13%), utilities (12%), energy (12%), construction (11%), and telecommunications (10%).

Without corruption, some 79% of respondents expected at least 10% addition to the country's GDP growth rate. Among benefit they expected to get from eradication of corruption were lower business cost (27%), competitiveness improvement and larger sales (19%), and more competition on product quality (16%).

Among anti-corruption actions that business leaders and directors wanted to see most from the government were stringent law enforcement and punishment of both bribe takers and payers (25%), corruption probe on politicians and civil servants (16%), establishment of public conscious against corruption to make it unacceptable behavior (9%), provision of support to business/civil society network in monitoring and report corruption leads and information (8%). What they would like to see most from the private sector were the setting of corporate anti-corruption policies (35%), collaboration of various sectors in determining of anti-corruption direction (19%), and the establishment of accountable management/operating system (13%).

"This study indicated that we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel in fixing corruption problem. Albeit some positive progresses, corruption remain a major problem that 90% still rate at high or very high. It is necessary for the private sector to establish a more solid and powerful anti-corruption network to tackle the problem. On the bright side, more businessmen are acknowledging that the problem needs to be solved and are willing to lend their hands in resolving corruption issue. Therefore, we all need to push anti-corruption campaign forward in firm and continuous pace," said Dr. Bandid.

Background

The CAC was founded in 2010 to bring effective anti-corruption policy and mechanism into implementation. The scope of CAC focuses specifically on the private sector and it works closely with the Anti-Corruption Organization Thailand (ACT)

The CAC was co-founded by eight leading organizations in the private sector including the Thai Chamber of Commerce, the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce in Thailand, the Thai Listed Companies Association, the Federation of Thai Industries, the Federation of Thai Capital Market Organizations, the Thai Bankers' Association, the Tourism Council of Thailand, and the Thai Institute of Directors Association (IOD), which serves as the secretariat and takes a leading role in driving the program. The CAC's operations are sponsored by U.S-based Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), the U.K. Prosperity Fund, and Thailand Sustainable Development Foundation (TSDF).

Information about the CAC can be found at , www.thai-cac.com