Government House, Cabinet supports amendment of ‘payment of bribes and rewards’ to customs officials, gathering opinions from many agencies to prevent conflicts of interest, agency heads
Ms. Kanika Ounjit, Deputy Government Spokesperson, revealed that the Cabinet meeting acknowledged the recommendations on the criteria and conditions for paying bribes and rewards to Customs Department officials as proposed by the NACC, such as: 1. The Ministry of Finance should study the necessity of providing rewards to reward performance and the feasibility of setting compensation for current government personnel to be appropriate for the nature of their performance, instead of the reward system from fines received.
Consider improving the account of prize money sharing ratios to reflect participation and performance more than position level to prevent conflicts of interest and reduce the use of discretion by government agency heads. 3. Have the Customs Department create a “central database” regarding the payment of bribe
s and prizes in electronic form systematically. Create information linking to the origins of wrongdoings and property lists leading to the payment of bribes and prizes.
Assign the Ministry of Finance and the Customs Department to discuss with the Office of the Narcotics Control Board, the Anti-Money Laundering Office, the Royal Thai Police, the National Anti-Corruption Commission, and relevant agencies to reach a conclusion. Summarize the discussion results and submit them to the Cabinet Secretariat within 30 days for consideration by the Cabinet.
The reporter reported that the Customs Department has collected retrospective data for the past 10 years (from 2011-2020) to submit to the NACC office. It was found that the statistics of the payment of bribes and rewards of the Customs Department totaled 8,679 million baht, with the payment of bribes and rewards of approximately 846-1,226 million baht during 2011-2018, which was adjusted down to 266-375 million baht during 2019-2020.
The allocation of bribes and
rewards to Customs officials is in accordance with the Customs Department regulations on the payment of bribes and rewards 2017, which are divided into 2 parts: the first part is 1/3 of the reward money to be paid to the person who found the wrongdoing. In the case of multiple persons, each person receives the same amount. Customs officials who are entitled to receive this money include officers at the Director-General level.
The second part is 2/3 of the reward money paid to the person who detects the wrongdoing or who joins in the arrest or takes actions after the arrest that are beneficial to the successful arrest and other persons who help in the successful arrest or detection of the wrongdoing. However, it is stipulated that the Director-General level has the right to receive the largest share of 13 shares, followed by the Deputy Director-General level who have the right to receive 11 shares each.
The level of office director has the right to receive 10 portions each, the level of customs checkpoint ch
ief has the right to receive 10 portions each, the level of expert has the right to receive 12 portions each, the level of expert has the right to receive 10 portions each, etc. While the operational level has the right to receive 7 portions each, except for the operational level who are in their first civil service position for 4 years, who have the right to receive 6 portions each.
Source: Thai News Agency