The government has been urged to reform the way procurements are handled for state projects to ensure transparency after a new survey on corruption highlighted the government's failure to curb graft.
The survey, which focused mainly on business operators nationwide, estimated that corruption costs the country over 200 billion baht of the state's investment budget.
Former Bank of Thailand governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul, now chairman of a committee on economic reform, made the remarks yesterday following the release of the latest corruption situation index (CSI) survey by the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC) in collaboration with the Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand (ACT).
The survey indicated corruption is severe and must be addressed urgently, Mr Prasarn said. At present, no structural changes have been made to tackle graft, he added.
He noted the government has focused on "tightening the screws" in its efforts to deal with corruption. Instead of solving the problem, this approach has created new ones and made it difficult for capable people to work, Mr Prasarn said.
The correct way should be to reduce too many unnecessary rules and regulations to ensure more transparency in state procurement, he said, adding that too much red tape can help foster corruption.
ACT secretary-general Mana Nimitmongkol echoed Mr Prasarn's call for structural changes, particularly in procurement for state projects, and state officials should also exercise sound judgement.
Several measures are also needed to push for the changes, he added.
"The CSI survey has been undertaken since 2010 and we can see that the corruption index for Thailand improved drastically in 2014 after the rise of the National Council for Peace and Order. Since then it has deteriorated again, even though the situation is still better now than it was in 2014," he said.
"If we allow such a decline to continue, all of our efforts could go to waste."
Big change is needed to fix the graft situation and restore people's confidence, he said.
He said the luxury watch scandal involving Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon and a 300-million-baht loan debacle involving an ex-national police chief are among the cases that have raised people's doubts about how effective the scrutiny undertaken by state agencies is.
The UTCC's latest survey of 2,400 respondents in December found "the value of corruption" involving various bribes and under-the-table payments paid to state officials and politicians stands at 25-30% of the state investment budget, totalling 676.4 billion baht.
This is equivalent to 169 billion to 203 billion baht, accounting for 1.69-2.03% of GDP or 9.95-11.94% of the state spending budget of 1.7 trillion baht.
The figures reflect what businessmen must pay to gain access to state projects.