On this map by Transparency International, Thailand appears a little less burnt by corruption than its Southeast Asian neighbors, Malaysia excluded.
A whole lot of muttering hasn’t seemed to help Thailand’s corruption problem, as the kingdom fell to a new low last year.
On an international index, Thailand is more corrupt than it has been in 13 years, according to new rankings released by Transparency International.
Thailand fell two points to 39 from 41, and overall spending on bribes equals somewhere between a one-quarter to more than a one-third of all government spending, according to the results.
That puts Thailand at 102 of the 177 nations ranked. Just one year ago it sat at 88th. That’s a little better than the 20, 21 and 26 earned by neighbors Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos, but far behind Malaysia’s score of 50.
Transparency’s index “scores 177 countries and territories on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). No country has a perfect score, and two-thirds of countries score below 50,” according to the organization.
Increased spending on bribery could damage the GDP by 1.8 percent to 2.6 percent, according to Thanavath Phonvhichai of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.
Laws need to be strengthened to enforce more serious punishment in cases of corruption, Thai PBS reported.
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Graphic: Thai PBS
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