The Democrat Party is calling on the government to turn the so-called transnational bribery crisis facing a number of state enterprises into an opportunity to revamp their anti-corruption policy.
Deputy party leader Ong-art Klampaibul said Sunday the agencies accused of being involved in the recent bribery scandals were all state enterprises, including Thai Airways International, PTT Plc, Metropolitan Electricity Authority, Provincial Electricity Authority and TOT Plc.
This reflects a serious corruption problem affecting state enterprises, he said.
- See also: UK 'reluctant to help'
Citing an observation by an unnamed former member of a subcommittee assessing the performance of state enterprises, Mr Ong-art said about 60%-70% of procurement and hiring activities in the state enterprises are tainted with the "tea money" payments.
The news about the transnational bribery scandals involving the Thai state enterprises has damaged the country's reputation and the government should consider turning the crisis into an opportunity to better tackle graft in state enterprises, he said.
He suggested the government improve three key policy areas of state enterprises to better curb corruption.
First, he said, the government should ensure transparency and accountability in procurement and hiring procedures. Second, the selection of high-level executives of state enterprises should strictly be based on the merit system, he said. Lastly, in case of future selection of board members for state enterprises, those chosen should be truly knowledgeable, capable and able to contribute to the betterment of the organisations, he said.
Once they are free of corruption, the state enterprises will be stronger and become a crucial mechanism to bring about the nation's development, he said.
Meanwhile, an opinion survey carried out by Super Poll found most respondents (76.2%) want the government to invoke Section 44 of the interim constitution to wipe out corruption.
The government has ruled out exercising section 44 specifically in the Rolls-Royce case, amid concerns British authorities are reluctant to hand over certain information, given the large number of agencies said to be seeking details of what happened.
About six in 10 of the 1,256 respondents said they learned about the Rolls-Royce bribery scandal from media reports, while 84.6% said they thought the scandal would hurt Thailand's reputation, said Noppadon Kannika, director of the Super Poll office.
Pheu Thai Party acting deputy secretary-general Anuttama Amornvivat urged the public to join the party's call for a probe into the accumulated budget deficit of 2.3 trillion baht. She said the people did not see any improvement in the economy despite such a substantial portion of the budget being allocated for government spending.
Pheu Thai's economic team found that in the next fiscal year 2018 beginning in October, the government plans to run a budget deficit of as much as 450 billion baht, she said. A vast portion of the budget has been set aside for financing the purchase of military hardware that will not benefit the country in terms of improving its competitiveness, she said.
Thailand was recently downgraded for the presence of graft, going from 76th place to 101st in Transparency International's 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index, Ms Anuttama added.
