THE STRATEGY OF PROMOTING TRANSPARENCY BY BUDDHISM FOR ADMINISTRATION OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN NONG KHAI PROVINCE

Abstract

The research had three key objectives: i) to study general administration in
promotion of transparency in accordance with Buddhism for administration of the
local government organizations in Nongkhai province; ii) to study Buddhist principles
relevant to the promotion of Buddhism – based transparency for administration of
the local government organizations ; iii) to formulate the strategy of promoting the
Buddhism –based transparency for administration in local government
organizations in Nongkhai province.
The research was a mixed one, with quantitative and qualitative
instruments of the research, which was comprised of questionnaires of five – rating
scale and in-depth structural interview. Sample of the research was executives,
members of the municipality council and SAO councils, officials and civil servants of
the organizations including people, totaling 398 persons out of 75767 population in
the town municipality of Nongkhai and the subdistrict municipality of Jumpol,
Viengkuk, Faorai, as well as the subdistrict administrative organization of Jumpol,
Nonkhai province. The collection of quantitative data relied on the questionnaires,
which had the value of index of all items objective congruence at 0.933. Analysis
of the data was calculated through descriptive statistics: frequency distribution,
percentile, mean, and standard deviation. In addition, for the collection of the
qualitative data, the in-depth structural interview and the face to face interview
were used to get the as reliable data as possible. In the third phase, the focus
group discussion among 12 professional experts was held to synthesize and verify
the model. All qualitative data was analyzed by descriptive content analysis.
Findings were as follows:
1. As generally stated, administration in terms of Buddhism – based
transparency management in the local government organizations in Nongkhai
province possessed the different levels of opinion, which was related to statistically
significant values, as follows: (1) the promotion of transparency management in
terms of rule of law with the Buddhist principles of three right conducts – physical,
verbal and mental- had the high level of a mean opinion at 3.67; (2) the
promotion of transparency management in terms of participation with the Buddhist
principles of three right conducts had the high level of a mean opinion at 3.68; (3)
the promotion of transparency management in terms of responsibility with the
Buddhist principles of three right conducts had the high level of a mean opinion at 3.78; (4) the promotion of transparency management in terms of rule of law with
the Buddhist principles of three trainings – morality, concentration and wisdom -
had the high level of a mean opinion at 3.69; (5) the promotion of transparency
management in terms of participation with the Buddhist principles of three trainings
– morality, concentration and wisdom - had the high level of a mean opinion at
3.63; (6) the promotion of transparency management in terms of responsibility with
the Buddhist principles of three trainings – morality, concentration and wisdom -
had the high level of a mean opinion at 3.61.
2. The Buddha’s teachings, which can be suitably integrated to the good
governance for promoting transparency in accordance with Buddhism for
administration in the local government organizations consists of the principle of
three trainings and the one of three right conducts, both of which can be practically
applied into transparency management by the local government organization in
terms of three individual domains: (1) rule of law (2) participation (3) responsibility.
3. The strategy of promotion and development of Buddhism - based
transparency for encouraging the local government organizations to be an
effectively administrative organization are subdivided into nine strategies: (1) the
strategy of promotion of transparency with the principle of rule of law and honesty
and determination; (2) the strategy of promotion of transparency in budgetary
administration with the principle of rule of law and honesty and without corruption;
(3) the strategy of promotion of transparency in human resource management with
equality and impartiality; (4) ) the strategy of promotion of transparency in
administration with principle of responsibility, by carrying out right job progression;
(5) the strategy of promotion of transparency with responsibility in budgetary
administration for supporting and development of life; (6) the strategy of
promotion of transparency with principle of responsibility in living together among
human being, community and environment; (7) the strategy of promotion of
transparency with the principle of participation, co-thinking and cooperation: (8) the
strategy of promotion of transparency with the principle of participation in
budgetary administration by honesty, integrity and with social benefit - oriented
service mindedness; (9) the strategy of promotion of transparency with the
principle of participation in personnel management, aiming to public service and
social awareness.