The quake that brought down a building being constructed for the State Audit Office (SAO) late last month has opened a can of worms for an agency that preaches ethics.
Earlier this week, a list of expensive furniture that was claimed to have been in the collapsed building was exposed by the STRONG Anti-Corruption Thailand Facebook page, causing a stir.
The cost of furniture and fittings, including 28 meeting chairs at 97,900 baht apiece, seemed unusually expensive. These chairs were made from beech wood and upholstered in Italian leather. A set of leather-upholstered sofas priced at 157,000 baht was also lambasted for being overly luxurious. The agency also ordered 98 faucets costing 8,250 baht each, 98 soap dispensers priced at 1,668 baht each, and other bathroom accessories amounting to millions of baht.
The exposure -- like an aftershock -- has fuelled public anger, with frowns all around over the way the SAO appears to have allowed misconduct and dubious practices in the construction project.
The agency has remained tight-lipped as the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) probes the blunder.
Critics have already slammed the proposed 30-storey height of the new SAO building. They believe the SAO, which stresses the need for austerity, did not need such a colossal building, which is now reduced to dust, in the first place.
What are deemed necessary luxuries in one context are in total contrast to how the SAO keeps strict control over state agencies' expenses.
In past years, state officials dealing with the SAO's complaints have earned it a reputation for being a fussbudget.
The affected officials said tight controls are unpractical and affect efficiency and morale.
Several officials in the education sector shared their thoughts on social media, with some recalling the case of an outstanding teacher who, out of goodwill, was dismissed from his job at a remote school in Chiang Mai because he expanded a subsidised lunch programme to cover older students who would otherwise have nothing to fill their stomachs. The SAO saw the inclusion of older students in the programme as a "misuse of school budget". The agency was also criticised for overreacting to a few missing receipts, without thinking that such documents are untypical in such a remote area.
One complainant said his project required out-of-the-box thinking -- something absent at the SAO, which upholds a culture of power, if not authoritarianism.
More importantly, the SAO appears unaware that extremely strict, irrational control, while compromising efficiency, can do little in curbing corruption. The agency does not need to look beyond itself to see that borne out.
Not to mention that the SAO still owes the public an explanation for the irregularities in the building project that resulted in heavy casualties. As of yesterday, there were 15 confirmed dead and 81 unaccounted for.
The most important point is that the SAO has been able to wield such a significant amount of power without oversight of any kind. That is something that must change.
