A bribe scandal involving the issuance of identity cards for ineligible Myanmar migrants in Tak's Mae Sot district shows how deeply rooted corruption is in this country and the failure of the Prayut Chan-o-cha government to clean up the state service over the past nine years.
Almost every day, new bribery and/or extortion scandals in various state agencies are uncovered.
Cases range from stickers for overloaded trucks, entertainment businesses operated by Chinese mafia, gambling dens, overpriced lottery sales, narcotics smuggling and money laundering.
The latest one involves high-level police in Chon Buri who allegedly extorted some 140 million baht from online gambling operators. Needless to say, quite a few scandals must be going on unreported.
More importantly, even if the bribes were uncovered, only small operators are punished, as those on top of the administrative echelons remain unscratched.
In Mae Sot, four officials in the district's registration unit have been transferred to inactive positions pending an investigation.
They are accused of taking kickbacks from Myanmar migrants seeking so-called pink cards -- a registration document initially created for Thais and ethnic minority groups in remote or border areas who had slipped from the household registration system.
The pink card, valid for 10 years, was initially created as a tool to solve statelessness.
A large number of citizens in remote provinces like Ranong and several northern provinces had no access to household registration due to poor transport in bygone days.
The card enables the holders and their children to live and work and gain access to state services, education, health and welfare while pending the naturalisation process. Later on, the card was handed to qualified migrant labourers who were registered in the house registration system.
The Mae Sot bribes must have existed for some time but became more blatant in recent months with long queues of people seeking pink cards. So many sought the cards that Thais seeking registration papers had to seek the service in nearby districts. Some concerned citizens laid complaints.
Tensions in Myanmar following the 2021 coup by Tatmadaw leader Sr Gen Min Aung Hlaing followed by a civil war and oppression of pro-democracy elements, have forced many people to flee to Thailand, some of whom are families of anti-junta fighters.
According to the website transbordernews, some ineligible applicants are migrant workers, blacklisted by the military junta, who were not able to return to Myanmar to extend labour-related documents.
Some also had their old pink cards seized by employers, which left them prey to the unscrupulous officers.
Higher demand pushes up the kickback money. Each ineligible applicant was asked to pay 80,000-100,000 baht per item, against the official rate of 60 baht. The officials have made off with over 30 million baht in the past three months.
After the bribes were uncovered, Tak governor Somchai Kitchareanrungroj nullified all 700 pink cards issued over the past three months and set up a probe.
That harsh order may affect those who legally obtained their cards. The province must give them a fair go and respect their rights.
On a wider front, it's time to revamp anti-graft mechanisms to fill all the loopholes and ensure that those in the wrong account for their bad deeds.
