Welfare graft case expands to 5 offices

More tipped to follow as inquiry gains legs

The Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) has found evidence to substantiate a suspected graft case at a welfare centre in Surat Thani that is believed to involve at least 6.9 million baht, said PACC commissioner Jarumporn Suramanee.

The findings of a preliminary probe undertaken in this rural southern province confirm the provincial centre is the fifth of its kind nationwide to be plagued by irregularities in the way living allowances are distributed to the underprivileged and people living with HIV/Aids, said Pol Gen Jarumporn.

Similar PACC probes in Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen, Nong Khai and Bung Kan found sufficient evidence to back a proposal to dig deeper into the embezzlement scandal, he said.

In Surat Thani, a team led by Pol Gen Jarumporn questioned 51 people who either received less money than the amount attested to by the receipts they supposedly signed, or who were given nothing despite the centre housing signed receipts suggesting they acknowledged payments that didn’t in fact exist.

The first group said they were given 2,000 baht each despite the receipts showing payments of 3,000 baht, Pol Gen Jarumporn said.

Pol Lt Col Wannop Somjintanakul, assistant secretary-general of the PACC, said the findings from all five provinces showed a similar pattern of embezzlement — indicating the fraud may have been carried out by a single network of suspects.

Wijarn Nurak, village headman of Ban Moo 1 in tambon Chang Sai of Surat Thani’s Kanchanadit district, told the PACC team yesterday that he had signed a receipt under the mistaken belief it concerned a course on how to make electrical wiring. He denied receiving any money.

Twelve residents from the same village claim they were each paid 2,000 baht recently from Surat Thani’s Protection Centre for the Destitute when they were in fact owed 3,000 baht apiece. They said they only found out they had been shortchanged on Sunday.

The PACC team will next submit a report to a higher committee with a request to set up a more formal panel to bring the culprits to justice, Pol Gen Jarumporn said.

The PACC team believes there are three to five suspects in each case, he said.

In Khon Kaen, a movement group calling itself Anakhot Thai (The Future of Thailand) Network, praised Panitkhada Yospanya, a fourth-year student at Mahasarakham University, for exposing the corruption she witnessed at the Khon Kaen centre while serving as an intern there.

Khemchat Somjaiwong, president of the group, urged more protection for Ms Panitkhada as she is being treated as a key witness in the probe.

He described her as a role model for others, who are too intimidated to speak out.

After she was allegedly forced to falsify documents worth millions of baht, she was brave enough to lodge a complaint with the National Council for Peace and Order and the PACC, Mr Khemchat said.

Lt Col Kornthip Daroj, acting secretarygeneral of the PACC, visited Bung Kan yesterday to follow up on the investigation.

He said the probe will be expanded to cover 31 provinces, with results expected no later than May 31.

The PACC has evidence proving corruption at all five cited centres, officials said.