A recently released academic survey ranks Thailand’s land office as the most corrupt agency, followed by the police department, according to The Nation.
The survey was conducted by Chulalongkorn University and asked 6,048 heads of Thai households what Thai agencies they had to make illegal payments to in order to receive service.
The Department of Lands manages over 800 land offices and units which oversee all transactions and documentation involving sales and purchases of land, reports The Nation.
Chaninat and Leeds’ Thailand land purchase attorneys are experts on Thailand land and property rights laws.
Of the survey respondents, 7.2 percent reported bribing land officials, while 6.1 percent reported bribing the police, and 2.4 reported bribing customs officials.
According to the survey, the top three agencies that acquired the most bribe money were land offices, police stations, and government schools, collecting 1.9 billion baht, 1.7 billion baht, and 640 million baht in total bribe money respectively.
The Nation reports that Department of Lands deputy director-general Wanit Intarak said the department was “aware of the bad reputation” and was tackling the issue by boosting ethics and morality among officials to prevent corruption and implementing information technology in the management system.
The university also surveyed respondents’ attitudes of corruption in the Thai bureaucracy and found that while Thai households believe corruption is a problem that should be addressed, overall they did not think it was “more important than their own economic and income difficulties,” said Professor Pasuk Phongpaichit.
Read the full story here.
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