Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has pledged to come up with a concrete plan in the war against corruption next month, local press reported on Thursday.

The plan will stipulate rules for the anti-graft campaign scheduled to kick off on Oct. 3, Thaksin was quoted by the BangkokPost newspaper as saying.

He added Deputy Prime Minister Visanu Kruengarm and Justice Minister Pongthep Thepkanchana will in charge of the campaign.

Sumeth Tantivejkul, chairman of Transparency Thailand Foundation has estimated that the country lost 1.2 trillion baht (about 28.6 billion US dollars) to corruption related mega-project search year.

To ease burdens of the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC), Pongthep said his ministry would propose draft amendments to the cabinet, which would empower police, or a special agency similar to the NCCC to look into corruption cases against lower-level state officials.

The amendments would also allow the NCCC to focus on cabinet minister, senators and other high-level state officials.

Source: Xinhua