VZCZCXRO5822
PP RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHCHI #0156/01 2890404
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 150404Z OCT 08
FM AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0863
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 0936

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CHIANG MAI 000156 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV ECON KCRM KJUS BTIO TH
SUBJECT: PILOT PROJECT TACKLES CORRUPTION AT GRASSROOTS LEVEL 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000156  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
----------------------------- 
Summary and Comment 
----------------------------- 
 
¶1. (SBU)  Provincial Counter-Corruption Commissions in Lamphun 
and Sukhothai, launched a year ago as part of a pilot project 
that includes six other provinces, have had modest success in 
raising grassroots awareness to counter local government 
corruption.  The project will ultimately be replicated 
nationwide, as stipulated in the 2007 Constitution, though 
implementing legislation must first be passed.  To date the 
pilot provincial commissions have taken a "soft" approach by 
promoting community awareness rather than going after corrupt 
officials.  With Thailand currently ranked middle-of-the-pack in 
Transparency International's global corruption index, the 
country has much to gain if it can build and sustain a 
grassroots-level anti-corruption network to complement 
national-level efforts.  End Summary and Comment. 
 
---------------------------------------- 
Targeting Local-Level Corruption 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U)  CG traveled to the Upper North's Lamphun Province 
October 10 to meet with the provincial office of the National 
Counter-Corruption Commission (NCCC).  This office is one of 
eight provincial-level offices created a year ago as a pilot 
project of the NCCC.  The NCCC itself was established as an 
independent agency under the 1997 Constitution, and began 
operations in 1999.   The NCCC has nine Commissioners, one of 
whom - Pakdee Pothisiri - happened to be in Lamphun on the day 
CG visited. 
 
¶3. (U)  Pakdee pointed out that in Transparency International's 
2008 Corruption Perceptions Index, Thailand had placed 80th out 
of 180 countries rated (tied with Brazil, Saudi Arabia and 
Morocco; behind 47th-place Malaysia and 72nd-place China,; and 
comfortably ahead of all other mainland Southeast Asian 
countries, with Vietnam being closest in 121st place).  He said 
the NCCC has set a goal of raising Thailand's current CPI score 
of 3.5 up to 5.0 by 2012, which would put Thailand roughly on 
par with Malaysia. 
 
¶4. (SBU)  On this background, Pakdee explained, the genesis of 
the pilot project came from a sense that the NCCC needed to 
address not only investigating and exposing existing corruption, 
but also preventing new corruption.  The NCCC Commissioners 
believed prevention could best be achieved by mobilizing civil 
society at the grassroots level against corrupt practices. 
Moreover, corruption in Thailand was widespread at the local 
level among municipal, district, sub-district and provincial 
officials.  Pakdee reported that, of the over 10,000 cases in 
the NCCC's docket in 2006, more than half were from the local 
government level.  He attributed much of this to the diffusion 
of procurement authority among many officials, all with little 
oversight. 
 
¶5. (U)  Thus the NCCC launched its pilot project as an attempt 
to address local-level corruption at the grassroots level.  It 
opened eight Provincial Counter-Corruption  Commissions (PCCC) 
in September 2007, two each in the North (Lamphun and 
Sukhothai), Northeast (Nong Khai and Surin), Central 
(Chanthaburi and Phetburi) and South (Surat Thani and Songkhla) 
regions.  The PCCCs were tasked with tackling corruption at the 
local level by encouraging the participation of all sectors, 
government as well as civil society, in corruption monitoring 
and prevention. 
 
------------------------ 
Staffing and Budget 
------------------------ 
 
¶6. (U)  Given the provisional nature of the pilot program, the 
PCCCs do not have their own office but rather share space with 
the provincial administration office.  The NCCC headquarters 
provides each provincial office with a modest annual budget of 
600,000 baht (USD 18,000), and support staff who are direct-hire 
personnel seconded from NCCC Bangkok.  Each PCCC has five to 
seven Commissioners, based on one of two models.  In the case of 
Sukhothai, the Commissioners are a mix of provincial government 
personnel and local civil society leaders, chaired by the 
Provincial Governor.  In the case of Lamphun, all Commissioners 
are business and civil society representatives, though several 
are retired provincial civil servants or police. 
 
------------------------------ 
Looking for Soft Targets 
------------------------------ 
 
¶7. (U)  During their first year of operation, PCCC activities in 
Lamphun and Sukhothai focused on educational campaigns to 
promote greater understanding of the societal costs of 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000156  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
corruption and to build greater community participation in 
monitoring and preventing corruption.  Specific projects 
included: 
 
-- educating the public about the work of the PCCC; 
-- training prospective counter-corruption counterparts; 
-- promoting transparency and good governance in local 
government units; 
-- educating local administrators and politicians about asset 
declaration requirements; and 
-- naming "most outstanding" local government entities based on 
community opinion. 
 
¶8. (SBU)  One PCCC official admitted to us that, at least for 
year one, it was more practical to focus on promoting community 
awareness rather than going after corrupt officials, which would 
create enemies for the PCCC from the start.  This "soft" 
approach does appear to have borne modest fruit, however. 
Earlier this year the Sukhothai office received an award from 
the NCCC for its campaign to promote community participation in 
counter-corruption efforts, which resulted in numerous 
whistle-blowing reports over irregularities in procurements and 
construction contracts made by the Provincial Administrative 
Organization (PAO).  PCCC officials in Lamphun linked their 
anti-corruption awareness campaign with the results of local 
elections earlier this year in which the public exerted "social 
sanction" by voting out of office sub-district and municipal 
politicians involved in fraudulent payments for "guaranteed" 
longan fruit exports to China.  Similarly, Lamphun voters ousted 
the veteran PAO President who faced charges of budget 
irregularities. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
New Constitution Enshrines Pilot Project 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶9. (U)  The pilot project will ultimately applied nationwide, 
the NCCC's Pakdee told us, because Thailand's new Constitution 
adopted in 2007 calls for establishing a PCCC in every province 
in the country.  Parliament first needs to pass an implementing 
law, for which there is no timeline yet.  Until that law is 
passed, the eight pilot PCCCs will continue to depend on the 
national headquarters for their budget, support staff, and 
certain decision-making authorities.  Other operational 
challenges for PCCCs include: 
 
--  overcoming the public's preconception that the PCCC's task 
is to investigate and exposing existing corruption, not prevent 
new corruption; 
 
--  maintaining credibility in the eyes of the public by keeping 
pace with the rising number of corruption complaints filed as 
the awareness campaign takes hold; and 
 
--  convincing the public that combating corruption is not just 
the responsibility of the PCCC, but requires active 
participation by all sectors civil society. 
MORROW