In Thailand, the National Anti-Corruption Commission (the "NACC") has funded and organized, The Museum of Thai Corruption (the "Museum"), which is a roaming museum to raise the awareness of fraud and corruption in Thailand.
The Museum showcases ten major alleged cases in Thailand over the last 15 years which includes: the rice subsidy scheme (in more detail below), corruption in the construction of 396 police stations, Raisom media corruption case, Bangkok film festival bribery case, Khlong Daan waste water management corruption case, the construction of low quality footsal stadium,unusual richness case against a former Transport Ministry permanent secretary, the case of imported luxury cars for Thailand's grey market, dried longan subsidy scheme and the advertising billboard above police boxes case.
The ten alleged corruption cases are represented through modern sculptures with easy-to-understand descriptions. The museum is located at the NACC offices at 361 Nonthaburi Rd, Mueang District, Nonthaburi 11000.
The rice subsidy scheme in further detail....
The rice subsidy scheme was supposed to help Thai rice farmers to earn more revenue and was launched by former Prime Minister Ms Yingluck Shinawatra in 2011. The purpose of this scheme was to buy rice from Thai farmers at a price around 50 percent above the prevailing world market price and stockpile the rice in order to force up the global price. The government was unable to sell the rice at the promised high price which left thousands of farmers unpaid.
What is worse is that this policy not only supported Thai farmers, but also farmers from neighboring countries including Vietnam and Cambodia, as there were rumours that they were illegally selling their rice to the Thai government as well. This resulted from a lack of controls and measures to check the provenance of rice being acquired under the scheme. Furthermore, this scheme also encouraged farmers to only focus on the quantity of rice rather than the quality, as the purpose of selling rice to government was just to make more money! In summary, the government purchased low quality product at a high price and lost credibility as a result of this scheme.
According to the investigation conducted by NACC, the impact of the rice subsidy scheme to the government was over USD 16 billion. In addition, it was estimated that 16 million tons of rice stock perished and almost 3 million tons went missing from the warehouse. The rice subsidy scheme is considered one of the worst policy stories that Thailand has ever experienced.
Other interesting cases at the Museum include:
One stop corrupted
"Proposed, Processed and Stolen by one family's corruption in a public project"
Court case: The Klong Daan waste water management project, 1998
Loss value: USD 600 million
Slow life Thailand
"What an incredibly slow-pace living in Thailand can offer"
Court case: The Bangkok Film Festival case, 2009
Loss value: USD 1.75 million
The shameless devouring of police station
"The amazing abuse of a massive budget for the construction of police stations nationwide"
Court case: The corruption of police stations construction, 2012
Loss value: USD 167.09 million
Pretty shameless government officers
"Let's unite and talk benefit"
Court case: the case of imported luxury cars for Thailand's grey markets, 2013
Loss value: USD 1.7 billion
If you wish to know more about Thai corruption check out the museum or visit http://www.museumofthaicorruption.com
References
Corben, R. (2014, June 16). Thailand Ends Controversial Rice Subsidy Scheme. Retrieved from Voice of America: http://www.voanews.com/content/thailand-ends-controversial-rice-subsidy-scheme/1937693.html
Ph.D. Somkiat Tangkitvanich., et. al. (2013, October 30). Corruption problem in Thailand. Retrieved from Thailand Development Research Institute: http://tdri.or.th/tdri-insight/corruption-problem-in-thailand/
Sim, S. (2015, January 23). Thailand Rice Subsidy Scheme: : What It Is And How It Toppled Thai Leader Yingluck Shinawatra. Retrieved from IBT: http://www.ibtimes.com/thailand-rice-subsidy-scheme-what-it-how-it-toppled-thai-leader-yingluck-shinawatra-1792788
Thailand, A.-C. O. (n.d.). Rice-pledging scheme. Retrieved from Museum of Thai corruption: http://www.museumofthaicorruption.com/#/sculpture-1=info