Thailand COVID loan transparency / IMF loan safeguards / China anti-corruption cammpaign philosophy

Loan decree needs to be transparent.  “Thirachai Phuvanatnaranubala, who was [Thailand’s] finance minister from 2011 to 2012, said he does not object to the [approx. US$ 22.2 billion] borrowing plan, which is essential in getting the economy back on track. However…Mr Thirachai alleged that the mechanisms used to ensure transparency and fiscal discipline were removed and replaced with a cabinet-appointed committee authorised to select and propose projects to the cabinet for consideration.”

Chatrudee Theparat/Bangkok Post: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2120931/loan-decree-needs-to-be-transparent  

 

Checking the Receipts from Pandemic-Related Spending (Blog).  “A year into the emergency response, information is becoming available on the progress in implementing these governance measures in pandemic-related spending…Transparency and accountability in the crisis response are important for all countries, regardless of their income level, and such measures are of course commonplace in many countries beyond those receiving IMF financing.”

Chady El Khoury, Jiro Honda, Johan Mathisen, and Etienne Yehoue/International Monetary Fund: https://blogs.imf.org/2021/05/20/checking-the-receipts-from-pandemic-related-spending/  

 

Why Are the Architects of China’s Anticorruption Campaign (Mis-)Reading Tocqueville? (Blog).  “[If Wang Qishan, who was then head of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection] and others are genuinely interested in learning from Tocqueville, and not just appropriating the bits and pieces that fit existing ideas about how to approach reform, they might benefit from paying more attention to Tocqueville’s celebration of civil society and decentralization of power.”

Steven Wang/The Global Anticorruption Blog: https://globalanticorruptionblog.com/2021/05/21/why-are-the-architects-of-chinas-anticorruption-campaign-mis-reading-tocqueville/