Ex-dept head named in Amlo probe
The Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) yesterday lodged a complaint with police accusing a former permanent secretary for social development and human security and his close associate of stealing money from state welfare funds for the destitute.
Witthaya Neetitham, a department secretary at Amlo, yesterday submitted a letter of complaint to Pol Maj Gen Kamol Rienracha, chief of the Royal Thai Police’s Counter-Corruption Division (CCD).
According to the complaint, the suspects are the Social Development and Human Security Ministry’s former permanent secretary Phutthiphat Loetchaowasit, when he served as chief of the Social Development and Welfare Department; and a former female official who was a close aide of Mr Phutthiphat. The complaint comes after Amlo on Tuesday issued an order to freeze 88-million-baht worth of assets related to 12 suspects.
These 12 people were accused of involvement in the embezzlement of the state welfare fund for needy people. Amlo had conducted an investigation and found irregularities in the money trail linked to the 12 suspects, Mr Witthaya said. Mr Phutthiphat and his aide are among t he 12, Mr Witthaya told the media.
Other suspects whose assets have been frozen include the ministry’ s former deputy permanent secretary Narong Khongkha and former inspectorgeneral Thiraphong Sisukhon, according to Mr Witthaya.
The alleged theft involved the spending of budgets allocated between 2016-2017. Mr Witthaya said the suspects gradually siphoned money from the budget and transferred it into assets.
Thirty percent was deducted from each handout as “change”, which was given back to senior officials in cash to avoid inspection, Mr Witthaya said. The embezzled money was later converted into 41 assets in total — luxury cars, apartments, plots of land and bank deposits — worth about 88 million baht, according to Amlo investigators.
Apart from executives at the ministry, others involved in the embezzlement include mid-level officials — some welfare centre chiefs as well as some former department directors-general, Mr Witthaya said.
Suspects will be given 30 days to provide evidence to show their frozen assets were acquired properly.
Romsit Wiriyasan, Amlo’s acting secretary-general, warned people against involvement in receiving or transferring the assets.
Amlo has worked closely with the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission in its probe into the embezzlement scandal. The PACC released a probe result in May showing only nine out of the 76 provincial welfare centres across the country were free of corruption.
The scandal came to light last February after four students from Maha Sarakham University exposed irregularities while working as interns at Khon Kaen Protection for the Destitute centre, which distributed welfare payments to the underprivileged.