Corruption, anti-corruption policy and management reform / L.R. Jones, Clay Wescott, Bidhya Bowornwathana -- Combating corruption in the Asia-Pacific countries : what do we know and what needs to be done? / Jon S.T. Quah -- Corruption in India : can it be controlled? / Krishna K. Tummala -- The politics of combating corruption when big businessmen are at the helm : lessons from Thaksin and Berlusconi / Bidhya Bowornwathana -- Competition and transparency in government procurement in Southeast Asia / David S. Jones -- Why did anticorruption policy fail? Implementation of the anticorruption policy of the authoritarian new order regime in Indonesia, 1971-1998 / Roby Arya Brata -- Assessing world bank support for public financial management and procurement / Clay Wescott -- Unlocking capacity and revisiting political will : Cambodia's public financial management reforms, 2002-2007 / Robert Taliercio -- Managing performance in a context of political clientelism : the case of Thailand / Suchitra Punyaratabandhu, Daniel H. Unger -- Could a decentralized human resource management system in Cambodia strengthen performance and accountability? / Eng Netra, David Craig -- Assessing the impact of crises on the performance and governance of Asian countries / Gene A. Brewer, Yujin Choi, Richard M. Walker.

During the past decade, globalization and democratization have been the major forces that helped transform the structures, functions, and processes of Asian public sectors. Nevertheless, these transformation efforts of Asian countries vary considerably depending on local context, and have met with different degrees of success. Some countries experienced smooth transformations. For others, the reform process has been more volatile. These issues were explored at a conference July 7-9, 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand, hosted by the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, and co-sponsored by the International Public Management Network, the Asia-Pacific Governance Institute, and Thailand Democracy Watch. This book presents some of the works contributed by participating scholars and practitioners at the conference. The contents fall into three categories: corruption and anti-corruption initiatives, public financial management reforms, and public management reforms with emphasis on performance and results.