THE PRAYUT government has made some progress in suppressing corruption but it needs to show that it would not spare any wrongdoers including its cronies, anti-corruption experts said yesterday.

They were speaking at a seminar, “Monitoring the Prayut Government’s Anti-Corruption Policies”, which was organised by Thailand Development and Research Institute (TDRI) and the Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand (ACT).

Thippatrai Saelawong, a principal researcher from the TDRI, said the government has been doing its best to tackle corruption by reforming and enacting some new laws. At least five laws to help suppress corruption have been enacted during its term of nearly three years.

The research team looked into the progress of the government’s anti-corruption effort by examining degrees of action, from light action to the most concrete action of law enactment.

The team found that the government had performed quite well, with a score of about 67 per cent, in preventing officials intervening in state business via subjective judgements, one of the two prime sources of corruption. The other is state procurements.

At least two necessary laws have been put in place, particularly the state service facilitation law, under which state permission has become more transparent through concrete procedures, Thippatrai said.

The government has scored around 60 per cent regarding progress in trying to steer clear of corruption in state budget spending. At least two necessary laws, including the state procurements law, have been put in place to regulate and make spending of the state budget more transparent.

However, the promotion of public participation to ensure more transparency of state acts has been less successful as most laws have not yet been enacted, including the state information provision law, said Thippatrai.

“We have seen some progress in the government’s anti-corruption policies by taking a look at its law enactment on what is necessary. Still, we cannot tell yet whether these would lead to the success of corruption suppression as we need to monitor the enforcement of these new laws more as well as the outcome of the action,” said Thippatrai.

He added that there was still concern that an open atmosphere for discussions and participation was still relatively slim and several issues still remain closed to the public, including security issues.

Mana Nimitmongkol, ACT’s secretary-general, said the government has not yet been able to reach enough people to discuss solutions to the problem of corruption.

Some groups have joined the government’s efforts but they are being outpaced by the scale of the problem. This government had enacted more anti-corruption laws than past governments but cronyism has overridden its efforts.

Efforts in structural changes or long-term anti-corruption policies are desperately needed, he said.