The Integrity and Transparency Assessment (ITA) has been cited as Thailand’s governance standard that can be made known to the international community in order to create confidence about the operations of state agencies in Thailand.
The Office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) gave an explanation about the importance of the ITA in its journal, the April to June 2021 issue.
In the explanation, the ITA is a national instrument for public sector management, based on a holistic and comprehensive approach. It is comparable to a mandatory annual health check-up for government agencies.
Results of the ITA should be used to improve the agencies’ operational integrity, better display transparency, and serve the public with greater efficiency. Apart from government officials, the general public and the country as a whole would benefit from the ITA.
Thailand began to implement the ITA in the public sector in 2014. This instrument has been designed and developed to prevent corruption, implement national strategies and policies, and promote good governance on a national scale. The ITA also serves as an engine used by civil society to conduct surveillance in natural resource management and public interest protection.
In the National Strategy, a target has been set for at least 80 percent of state agencies to receive ITA scores of more than 85 by 2022.
The ITA is seen as an important instrument to upgrade Thailand’s integrity and transparency. The NACC hopes that the improvement in the results of ITA evaluations in the public sector will raise Thailand’s score in the Corruption Perceptions Index, the survey of which is conducted by Transparency International.
Source: The Government Public Relations Department