New studies tally up income from graft

PREEYANAT PHANAYANGGOOR

Police corruption is under scrutiny again with new studies claiming officers pocketed up to 31 billion baht in illegal income from the underground economy in 2003.

Academic Sungsidh Piriyarangsan, an expert on the underground economy, said his research on ''police, mafia and the black economy'', found that police earned up to 31 billion baht in extra income, mainly from illegal businesses.

They earned ''19-27 billion baht from gambling dens, 1.5-1.8 billion baht from alien workers, 500 million baht from massage parlours, 1.8 billion baht from motorcycle queues and 50 million baht from passenger van queues,'' he said.

Mr Sungsidh, of Dhurakijbundit University's Social and Economic Research Institute, said the ban on grey businesses in Thailand provided an opening for police corruption.

Gambling dens, entertainment venues and massage parlours allowed police to act as their protectors, taking bribes or a share of profits in return for turning a blind eye.

The complicated process involved in hiring alien workers also allowed police to earn extra income. Employers agreed to pay bribes to smooth the process, the academic said.

For motorcycle taxis and passenger vans, police in each area could act as queue regulators as well as protect the heads of the queues, and in return received a share of the income.

A second study by Supoj Jun-anantatham, Visanu Wongsinsirikul and Natthanan Wijit-aksorn on corruption in the Metropolitan Police Bureau, found that police superintendents earned from 300,000 to one million baht each month from illegal businesses.

Traffic police received the highest extra income from illegal businesses.

Deputy superintendents pocketed an estimated 200,000-300,000 baht each month, chief inspectors took 20,000-100,000 baht while non-commissioned officers received around 2,000 baht each month.

''For police investigators, deputy superintendents earned between 100,000 and 300,000 baht, chief inspectors received 100,000 baht and non-commissioned officers took 20,000 baht,'' said the report.

For crime prevention and suppression police, deputy superintendents pocketed about 10,000-200,000 baht, chief inspectors took 10,000-100,000 baht and non-commissioned officers received about 2,500-5,000 baht.

However, police interrogators received a small amount, 2,000-3,000 baht, while non-commissioned officers were paid 1,000 baht since they had to share with other officers at the police station.

Mr Sungsidh suggested the government tackle the problem of police corruption by raising police salaries and financial rewards.

He said politicians should stop using police to protect their business interests and threaten their business rivals.

It should allow police to be independent, and work on changing their attitude to serving society and the public more than the government.

Pol Col Pinij Maneerat, deputy spokesman of the Metropolitan Police, said the figures were too high. If police received that much in kickbacks they would all be rich by now.