Together, we never walk alone on this path of combating corruption in our region.
As the facilitator of SEA-ACN over the past two years, Torplus, representing KRAC, presented our regional collaboration efforts to fight corruption at the UNODC International Human Rights Day Workshop 2025, held in Malaysia on 8 December 2025.
Countering corruption creates an environment that upholds, protects, and advances human rights. Corruption and human rights are therefore inherently interconnected. The UNODC International Human Rights Day Workshop 2025 brought together stakeholders from anti-corruption agencies, national human rights institutions, the public sector, and civil society to identify areas of work, gaps, and opportunities for collaboration to address human rights violations caused by corruption.
Torplus Yomnak , a KRAC director, was invited to speak at the Expert Sharing session on the topic “Tracking Regional Anti-Corruption Traps Through Innovation.” He began by emphasizing the importance of publicly accessible information as a foundation for transparency.
He introduced ACT AI, a tool that allows easy searching of public projects, displays public procurement data, and identifies projects with potential corruption risks. Torplus highlighted his belief that the more accurate and openly disclosed the data is, the more effectively corruption can be detected and prevented.
Nevertheless, in reality, there are many challenges related to data standards. Working with the available data is difficult because much of it is hard to access, not clean, handwritten, not machine-readable, and often marked with watermarks that limit usability.
Moreover, corruption is a transnational crime that crosses borders. When looking at anti-corruption cooperation in Southeast Asia—from past to present—similar challenges persist. Most collaboration remains fragmented, inconsistent, and ad hoc, with an emphasis on meetings rather than on developing and implementing practical, actionable solutions.
To address these gaps, Torplus introduced the Southeast Asian Anti-Corruption Network for Civil Society Organizations (SEA-ACN), which aims to become a regional platform that establishes and sustains a functional anti-corruption ecosystem—supporting ongoing collaboration and ensuring the effective operation of partnerships across the region.
Today, the network has grown rapidly and has carried out numerous activities over the past two years, facilitated by KRAC and its committed members. In the concluding session, Torplus emphasized that this network helps ensure that none of us feel alone in the fight against corruption.
Together, we continue to build and strengthen an anti-corruption ecosystem throughout the region.
Arranged by : Saranchanok Limvisittanako
15 ธันวาคม 2568
