Resolution needed for solving corruption

BANGKOK, Jan 28 (TNA) -- In accepting the downgrade of prevailing corruption in Thailand by the recent report of Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, responsible for economic affairs, said resolutions are needed to plug the loophole of the malpractices. Mr Somkid said the government would find out why the country’s corruption ranking declined this year. The CPI said on Wednesday that Thailand’s score dropped from 38 points out of 100 in the previous year to 35 because of government repression, lack of independent oversight and the deterioration of rights eroded public confidence in the country. Thailand’s new constitution, while it placed significant focus on addressing corruption, entrenched military power and unaccountable government, undermining eventual return to democratic civilian rule, it said. Expressing his puzzle over surveys conducted by the Lausanne-based International Institute for Management Development and the World Economic Forum based in Cologny, Geneva, because the two agencies performed an almost the same operations, Mr Somkid said he expected the surveyors would use “hard data” more than interviewing businessmen in future. Generally speaking, Thailand’s ranking dropped by three points only, he added. Most importantly and Thailand cannot deny, is to explore ways to plug the loophole and what the its government is doing could eventually improve the corruption situation in this country in future, Mr Somkid added. (TNA)