Fund fraud suspect ‘sends’ open letter

The Education Ministry is investigating an open letter claimed to have been sent to reporters covering affairs at the ministry late on Thursday afternoon by Rojana Sinthi, the prime suspect in a case involving embezzlement from a fund for poor students.

The letter was apparently a plea for Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to accelerate all investigations into fraud cases in the public sector following the Education Ministry’s decision to relieve her of her duties.

The former senior planning and policy analysis specialist attached to the ministry was sacked after she reportedly admitted to having a hand in stealing 88 million baht from the Sema Phatthana Chiwit Fund, and transferring the money into 22 bank accounts belonging to relatives and friends, over the past decade.

The ministry said a further 30 million baht was missing from the fund, bringing the total damage to almost 120 million baht.

Atthaphol Truektrong, chairman of the fact-finding committee set up to investigate the embezzlement, said his personal observation was that the letter was typed using the Thai-Saraban font, while Ms Rojana normally used the Angsana font.

Although he said he would treat this open letter, delivered to the press room at the ministry by a courier, as a piece of evidence in the investigation, Mr Atthaphol said it still was possible that the letter was sent by someone else.

So far, Ms Rojana has not presented herself to the fact-finding panel as requested. The panel, however, says this is not a concern as it has already obtained sufficient evidence to wrap up the probe, he said.

At least two more people allegedly involved in the crime have confirmed they will meet the panel over the weekend, said Mr Atthaphol.

One is a Level 8 official at the Office of the Basic Education Commission and the other is a Department of Lands official.

These two people are former classmates of Ms Rojana at graduate school and both have admitted to receiving money from the fund into their bank accounts, he said.

The panel is expected to hold a meeting on Tuesday with the Public Sector AntiCorruption Commission to exchange information concerning their probes into the case so far.

The ministry’s panel should require another 15 days to wrap up its investigation as there are still documents to go through and a former permanent secretary for education to question, said Mr Atthaphol.