Administration According to the Principle of good governance of Municipality in the Eastern Region of Thailand

Abstract

The objective of this study were threefold: (1) to ascertain the general condition pertaining to the administration based on the principle of good governance of Municipality in the eastern region of Thailand; (2) to determine the preventive measures of corruption practices in Municipality; and (3) to bring to light the desirable pattern of administration based on the principle of good governance.

The study was qualitative research. The required data were collected from three sources: (1) related documents (2) the participant observations and (3) in-depth interviews with30 key informants. With regard to the key informants, they all had the wealth of information and experiences about the principle of good governance and the administrative practices of Municipality. The study instrument was a structured interview questionnaire; it was used for in-depth interviews with the key informants. Protect the human subjects or the key informants, the researcher provided them with a guarantee of privacy, confidentiality and anonymity. All the collected data were analyzed by resorting to descriptive analysis and inductive method.

Research findings: (1) Concerning the general condition about the administration based on the principle of good governance, it was found that most of the administrators of local government organizations failed to gain insights about the principle of good governance: particularly “transparency” and “people’s participation” (2) Concerning the preventive measures of corruption practices, it was discovered that the local government organizations had clearcut policies and clearly defined procedures, established procedures that promote ethical behavior and hold public employees accountable for their conduct, and encouraged people to participate in various administrative activities of local government organizations. (3) Concerning the desirable pattern of administration based on the principle of good governance, it was found that the desirable pattern of administration should consist of the following :1) human-centered administration; (2) community knowledge management; (3) use of top flight leaders; and (4) setting up high performance standards.