Integrated Causal Factors For and Guidance on the Enhancement of Transparency in Local Administrative Organizations in Northeastern Thailand

Abstract

Thailand is still perceived as corrupt with the latest report issued by Transparency International (Transparency International, 2017) showing that Thailand was ranked 96th (out of 180 countries) with the score of 37 (out of 100), up from 35 in the year 2016), and within the ASEAN countries, it was ranked 5th. These corruption problems are generally attributed to the work behaviors of the state officials concerned. It’s mixed methodology. Qualitative data were collected from 24 key informants in a focus group discussion and 12 experts in an in-depth interview. Quantitative data were collected from 400 LAOs staff across the northeast of the country. Results revealed that all the factors in the structural equation model were positively correlated at the significant level of 0.01. Leadership of administrators was found to have the highest direct effect on transparency of LAOs, followed by public participation, attitudes towards transparency, organizational culture, and organizational politics. Public participation was found to have the highest indirect effect. All the factors in the model could account for the transparency of LAOs by 82.70 per cent. To enhance transparency, it was recommended that administrators set a good precedent in matters pertaining to decentralization of power, clear viewpoints on anti-corruption, teamwork encouragement, compliance with rules and regulations, and more public participation in the monitoring and assessing the performance of the LAOs.