Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Policy corruption is caused by the use of administrative power and exploitation of legal loopholes, since the beginning of stage of policy formulation initiated by political parties, or by the Executive Branch through the exploitation of legal loopholes on policy implementation, until the stage of policy implementation through the operation of public projects that fulfill one’s personal gains or benefits for their peers and cause damages to the country. This is an increasing problem found in Thailand which causes substantial damages to its economic and social developments. It shows that Thailand still lacks effective mechanisms to prevent policy corruption. It is found from this study that policy corruption is associated with the activities of executive power, or the executives of the organisations which serves their personal interests or creates conflict of interests. Policy corruption is caused by the exercise of the power of project proposal or the project implementation or any other activities which results in fulfillment of personal gains from such project or activity and causes damage to the country. This can occur in every stage of the policy process. The researcher, therefore, proposes that policy corruption prevention measures should be in place. These include empowering the Election Commission of Thailand, political parties and the people to prevent policy corruption at the policy formation stage, enhancing the policy corruption prevention roles of the National Anti-corruption Commission, as well as integrating the cooperation with relevant entities in order to effectively implement the system and mechanisms of policy corruption prevention.