* SUMMARY

Introduction

The problem of corruption has been happening for a long time in many countries in the world and the root causes are largely deep in the culture, itself. The problem of corruption is that it affects economic growth by increasing costs, lowering productivity, discouraging investment, reducing confidence in public institutions, limiting the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, weakening systems of public financial management, and undermining investments in health and education. Corruption also increases poverty because of slowing economic growth, too.

Research in Thailand ranks corruption in the public sector as the third most serious national problem, following the poor economy and cost-of-living, and closely followed by drugs. Corruption is a significant problem in Thailand, both within the private and public sectors, but it is mainly found in the intersection between business and government where demands for facilitation payments are widespread. The public view politicians as more corrupt than bureaucrats. They believe corruption is getting worse, especially among politicians. Focusing on public institutions, the police are rated as the least honest, followed by the Ministry of Interior, and Customs Department. Bribery is particularly concentrated in a few governmental sectors in charge of large financial transactions: the Land Department, Tax and Customs Department, the Transport Department, and the Police Department. However, we have made great efforts to clean up our own problem for long time.