Deep Rooted Culture of Corruption
Thailand has had a long history of corruption, and the types regularly seen range from extortion and bribery to use of insider information to buy land. These kinds of corruption are deeply embedded in the Thai society for many reasons. For one, officials were traditionally not paid in salaries, but instead entitled to 10-30% of expenditures for rendering their services. Traditions of giving gifts to high officials also exist. These practices are not directly corrupting, but their continuation when officials actually do receive salaries is a major basis of corruption and how it is perceived as otherwise.
One big area of corruption popular in today's developing countries, including Thailand, is in the energy sector. Millions and billions of dollars are spent all over the world to develop "Clean Energy." Thailand’s power development planning process is premised on perpetuating gains for vested interests and designed to continue providing perverse incentives to extractive and nuclear industries. On top of wrong allocation of finances, large bribes are given to and received by officials (or their families) in charge of choosing contractors for the jobs, like in the recent Suvarnabhumi Airport project, where a car park contractor allegedly gave $250 million USD to an the prime minister's sister in order to secure acquisition of the job.
Read more about this topic: Politics Of Thailand
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