The government has admitted that past corruption investigations have proven to be failures but said its current toughened anti-graft approach will alleviate the nation's corruption woes.
Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya said many people doubt the efficiency of the state's mechanisms such as the government, the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) and the prosecutors in fighting graft.
Aside from the lack of public trust, surveys showing young people are tolerant of corruption further complicates efforts to combat graft, said Gen Paiboon.
Changing public attitudes and getting state agencies to work more closely to fight graft would be crucial to the fight, he said.
Speaking at an NACC forum on corruption held yesterday, the minister conceded he was at first reluctant to take the minister's position.
He said he realised from past experience working with law enforcement authorities that state officials function in a corrupt work environment.
Despite high public expectations on the Justice Ministry's corruption suppression performance, the ministry does not oversee the country's entire justice system, despite public perceptions that it does.
The truth, least known to many, was that the ministry's Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) actually did not have the authority to conduct corruption probes in state agencies without their formal permission, he said.
That was a key obstacle hindering the PACC from succeeding in its work and a reason why the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has given it new, disciplinary powers to investigate officials suspected of corruption.
More importantly, the PACC needs cooperation from other parties to better tackle corruption, he said.
For example, if the PACC works alone in the probe into the school futsal pitch scandal, it will only be able to investigate suspects who are state officials, said Gen Paiboon.
"The futsal scandal is a painful lesson that has taught us that government executives such as a cabinet minister like me must be prosecuted if proven guilty of committing corruption," he said.
As a short-term solution, the government has set up a national anti-corruption operation centre to bring together all state bodies in the fight against corruption, he said.
In the long term, more measures will be adopted to fight graft.
These may include a requirement for more state officials to declare their assets, an extension of the statute of limitations on corruption cases, and setting up a new court to specifically handle corruption cases, said the minister.
NACC member Pakdee Pothisiri said the NACC hasn't succeeded as much as it should have because the agency has lacked adequate cooperation from other parties, particularly the government.
Last year, for instance, the NACC did not receive any funding from the last government, he said.
However, after the NCPO prioritised suppressing graft, more money was allocated for the fight against corruption from Oct 1. Mr Pakdee said he was confident Thailand will move up to be among the world's top 50 countries with good anti-corruption records.
Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said last year Thailand was given a score of 35 out of 100 in corruption suppression and was ranked 102nd by an international organisation.
Thailand was also ranked 28th in the World Bank's ranking of countries most suitable for investing in last year, a slight drop from the rank of 26th the year before, said Mr Wissanu.
The main factor attributed to the downgrade was red tape in the bureaucratic system which made it prone to bribery, he said.