Corruption Perception Index 2012

Rankings for Southeast Asia from Transparency International 2012 Corruption Perception Index (CPI). Thailand ranks 88 out of 176 countries surveyed and fourth in Southeast Asia behind Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia.

Notes from CPI: 

The Corruption Perceptions Index ranks countries and territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be. A country or territory’s score indicates the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0 - 100, where 0 means that a country is perceived as highly corrupt and 100 means it is perceived as very clean. A country's rank indicates its position relative to the other countries and territories included in the index. This year's index includes 176 countries and territories.

CI refers to Confidence Interval. The confidence interval reflects some of the uncertainty associated with a country's CPI score. It is calculated by looking at the range of scores given by all the data used to calculate that country's score, such that a wider interval reflects a wider variation in the data for that country.

Bangkok Pundit has blogged CPI results from past years here and notes that results from this year aren't comparable to previous years due to changes in survey methodology. 

Looking at the scores from the last decade Thailand does not appear to have made significant progress in reducing the perception of public sector corruption - in fact one could argue that the situation has worsened.

In a recent poll conducted by Bangkok University, 88% of Bangkok residents surveyed said that corruption was acute in Thai society, while 12% said it was not. Of the 88%, 58.6% indicated a lot and 29.4% the most.  

Bangkok Post report of the survey does not show the breakdown of the 88% - it says, "About 88% believed corruption in Thailand was at its highest level." On this question and a couple others there is a percentage breakdown for the level of agreement with the question posed.  

Asked who is most to blame for corruption, respondents said: national politicians 62.9%, local politicians 57.5%, out-dates laws/loopholes 50.1%, Thais not serious about the problem 48.5% and the bureaucracy 42.1%

Asked if the current government is taking the problem of corruption seriously, 35.8% of respondents said yes, while 64.2% felt it was not. 

Asked which government projects have the most corruption, respondents said: rice mortgage scheme 51.8%, flood recovery projects 19.3%, one child one tablet 8.9%, SML village fund 5.8%, first time car buyer program 3.8%.

Asked which Thai politician was the most honest, respondents said: PM Yingluck 35.0%, former PM Chuan Leekpai 32.3%, former PM Abhisit Vejjajiva 14.6%, MP Chuwit Kamolvisit 8.8% and former Deputy PM Purachai Piumsomboon 5.0%

Photo c/o Matichon