NACC, NACC announces the results of the assessment of ethics and transparency in the operations of government agencies ITA AWARDS 2024, finding that the overall scores for fiscal year 67 at the national level are showing an upward trend. Pol. Gen. Watcharapol Prasarnrajkit, Chairman of the NACC, presented the ITA AWARDS 2024, which for the ITA assessment in fiscal year 2024, has 8,325 government agencies nationwide participating in the assessment, starting from January 1, 2024 and ending on June 30, 2024, under the supervision of assessment standards and academic reliability by representatives of relevant government agencies and qualified persons with knowledge and expertise. The results of the past operations have received good cooperation from all government agencies that were assessed and agencies involved in supervising and driving the ITA assessment, especially the participation in the internal stakeholder perception survey of government personnel and the external stakeholder perception survey of the general public who contacted or received government services, totaling 1,369,235 people, an increase from 2023 of 362,989 people, consisting of 461,440 government officials and 907,795 people who contacted or received government services, which is considered a large number of people participating in the assessment, in a proportion that can tangibly reflect the performance of government agencies in terms of ethics and transparency and has academic credibility, similar to the operations in the past year, which will be important information that government agencies can use to improve and develop their own agencies to the same standards. Pol. Gen. Watcharapol said that the NACC does not want to be a suppressor, but rather uses prevention to lead suppression, which is why the ITA is an important part of this. The ITA tool was designed with the main objectives of promoting good governance and preventing corruption. The focus of the questions is on preventing corruption and preventing the public sector. Government agencies must improve and develop according to the specified assessment. If the score is good, it reflects good prevention of corruption and management, which will improve the situation of corruption and misconduct in that organization. However, if the score is bad, this is important. It does not mean that the agency is corrupt, but rather reflects the quality of operations, management, and disclosure of information to the public. The results do not only require a score, but the framework of the assessment principles that are determined comes from government development policies, strategic plans, operational standards, and various related laws. It is a framework that guides the direction of each government organization since the beginning of the fiscal year. Pol. Gen. Watcharapol continued that there is also an expansion of the assessment to government partners, which has already been implemented in Bangkok. In 2025, there is a goal to expand cooperation in driving the ITA assessment at the sub-department le vel with several other agencies, such as the Revenue Department, the Land Department, the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, and the Customs Department. However, there are also many government agencies that have used the ITA assessment tool to improve and expand the assessment results within their own agencies, such as the Ministry of Public Health, the Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC), the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Education, and various universities. The interesting evaluation results are the central agencies that received 'excellent' evaluation results, divided into groups, department groups or equivalent, including the National Land Policy Committee with 99.31 points, the Royal Thai Navy with 99.21 points, the Government Savings Bank with 98.96 points, the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority with 98.84 points, the Zoological Park Organization of Thailand under Royal Patronage with 98.46 points, the Department of Religious Affairs with 98.30 points, the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives with 97.94 points. Other government agency groups, namely the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, received 97.27 points and the state enterprise group, namely the Tobacco Authority of Thailand, received 97.22 points. As for the evaluation results by each ministry, the results show that the Ministry of Industry scored 93.85 points, the Ministry of Labor scored 93.69 points, the Ministry of Finance scored 93.29 points, the Ministry of Energy scored 92.92 points, the Ministry of Culture scored 92.37 points, the Ministry of Interior scored 92.13 points, the Ministry of Justice scored 91.42 points, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society scored 90.88 points, the Ministry of Commerce scored 90.67 points, the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security scored 90.5 points, the Office of the Prime Minister scored 90.14 points, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment scored 90.11 points, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports scor ed 89.69 points, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation scored 89.66 points, the Ministry of Public Health scored 89.01 points, the Ministry of Defense scored 88.91 points, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs scored 88.7 points. Non-Prime Minister's Office agencies, ministries or departments received 88.24 points, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives received 87.7 points, the Ministry of Transport received 86.67 points and the Ministry of Education received 82.66 points. Source: Thai News Agency
Tuesday, September 17, 2024