BANGKOK, THAILAND - 18 March 2024 - The Office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), Thailand has brainstormed concerns from all related agencies to prevent corruption risk regarding bribery to officials and reward for officials to ensure transparency work of its officials and confidence for both local and international investors.

In efforts to uphold ethical conduct among officials who are directly involved with tacking corruption, the NCC recently held a meeting to brainstorm ideas on "Guidelines for Preventing Corruption Risk Regarding Bribe Payment and Rewards from the Performance of Officials". This is aimed at voicing opinions for the revision of the guidelines for rewarding officers with appropriateness, fairness, and consistency with the performance of duties, and remuneration based on performance for officials who work in tackling corruption in the country.

According to the NACC, it has provided recommendations for the revision of the reward payment for the Customs Department, the Ministry of Finance is afraid that the rewards caused 'moral hazards' among officials who are involved in the process of tackling corruption. Following the reward, it encouraged the officials to focus only on tasks with high rewards or having rewards, while neglecting to perform tasks with low rewards or no remuneration, which may cause corruption inequality, and unfairness among civil servants. The reward could also be considered as the risk of conflict of interest of the authority in determining the eligibility for the award and determining the proportion of the reward. The officials could risk rewarding themselves which was not inconsistent with the purpose of the guideline that wants to promote effective law enforcement, or may lead to the creation of false evidence in the disbursement of bribes.

The meeting was attended by representatives of relevant agencies including the Ministry of Finance, the Customs Department, the Comptroller General's Department Excise Department, the Office of the Narcotics Control Commission Anti-Money Laundering Office, the Royal Thai Police, the Office of the Auditor General, experts, executives and officers.

The meeting focused on various issues covering: who is entitled to receive the reward, the proportion and rate of payment of the reward, the appropriateness and fairness of the reward, the prevention of risks of discretion and conflict of interest, and the changing trend in the process of giving bribery and reward, explained Mrs. Suwana Suwanjuta, NACC Commissioner, who chaired the meeting.

However, with the modernization and connectivity of information technology today, this enables agility and efficient linkage of various data, as well as the NACC's credibility among international, the reward for officers could be revised to ensure the appropriateness of providing rewards for the authorities and to encourage government officials to enforce the law more efficiently and equitably in the bureaucracy.

In this regard, the NACC hopes that the meeting will voice concern from all involved so that the revision of the guidelines to provide rewards to officials will be more efficient and ensure transparency for all involved, helping improve standards in tackling corruption with more advancing and modernizing measures, the NACC concluded.

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