Government
Anti-corruption
Local officials under investigation for multimillion baht purchase of street lamps
Following allegations of corruption over a local government’s exorbitant purchases on decorative street lamps, Thailand’s National Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating and say procurements of the street lamps in a province just outside Bangkok were not in line with regulations. More than 20 people and ...
Bangkok Post
UNDP, OECD present corruption solutions for ASEAN
In Southeast Asia, as everywhere else, Covid-19 has fundamentally disrupted business as usual. A damaging side-effect of the pandemic on companies in the region, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), is the emergence of new corruption risks – the urgent demands of emergency procurement have ...
KANNI WIGNARAJA And JEFFREY SCHLAGENHAUF
Thailand says $11M seized in wildlife trafficking sting
Thailand s anti-money laundering authorities said Wednesday they have seized or frozen more than 330 million baht ($11 million) worth of assets in a sting operation against a suspected wildlife trafficking ring. The March 12 operation targeted Boonchai Bach, a Vietnamese and Thai citizen who was arrested in 2018 ...
AP news wire
The guardians of Siamese rosewood
“We bury a GPS tracker in the wood. We call them rabbits,” says Cheewapap Cheewatham, director of Thailand’s Forest Protection and Fire Control Bureau, part of the forestry department. He tells China Dialogue that they used to just impound as evidence cut rosewood they found ...
Ryn Jirenuwat, Tyler Roney
Watchdogs Call For Transparency as Cambodia Strikes Oil
Civil society organizations and Cambodia’s banned opposition party have called on the government to release detailed information about revenue it is earning from the petroleum industry, days after the country struck oil following a decades-long quest. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced on social media ...
Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Overwhelming majority approves Myanmar anti-corruption efforts
An overwhelming majority of the Myanmar people approved of the government’s efforts to stamp down corruption, the international anti-corruption watch group Transparency International said in a report released on November 24. The report said Myanmar has the highest percentage of citizens among the 17 Asia Pacific ...
John Grafilo
Former Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Hong Truong arrested
According to VietNamNet’s source, the Investigation Police Agency under the Ministry of Public Security has prosecuted Mr. Nguyen Hong Truong, former Deputy Minister of Transport, for breaching the regulations on the use of state assets, causing waste and losses. The investigation agency has also applied ...
Doan Bong
Corruption, Weak Rule of Law Cited as Myanmar Probes Latest Jade Disaster
A team appointed by the Myanmar government to probe a massive landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar has begun its investigation into the deadly accident that killed at least 172 people, a Kachin state official said Tuesday. Heavy rains caused piles of loose dirt ...
Reported by Aung Theinkha and Zarni Tun for RFA’s Myanmar Service and by Jia Ao for RFA’s Mandarin Service. Translated by Nandar Chann. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
‘No to corruption amid state-land distribution’: PM
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday warned of legal action against anyone caught taking advantage of state-mandated land distributions, two days after he ordered several ministries to oversee the transfer of state-protected land to its long-term occupants. The order was given to the Ministries of Agriculture, Land ...
Pech Sotheary
EU Lists Cambodia Among ‘High-Risk’ Nations for Money Laundering
The E.U. has listed Cambodia as one of 12 “high-risk” countries with deficient anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing efforts, but the government on Friday said officials were working hard to get the nation off international watch lists. The European Commission on Thursday adopted a new list ...
Matt Surrusco and Nhim Sokhorn