Minister threatens to punish welfare graft by dismissals without pensions

By The Nation

 

Interior Minister General Anupong Paojinda

 

Interior Minister General Anupong Paojinda on Tuesday said any state official found to be involved in alleged irregularities at provincial protection centres for the destitute would be dismissed from the civil service without a pension “to set a standard” for society.

 

Anupong made the comment after he was asked if officials with the local administrative organisations, which are under his ministry, had been involved in the growing embezzlement scandal.

 

He said he had not received any reports of relevant officials’ involvement.

 

He added that if officials under his ministry had committed graft, they would face severe punishment, including dismissal from the civil service without their pensions.

 

“The more who are caught and punished severely will help set a social standard and prevent such wrongdoing in the future,” he said.

 

The Office of the Public-Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) has detected irregularities at 44 provincial protection centres for the destitute and is investigating the other 32 centres to meet a May 31 deadline, according to PACC assistant chief Pol Lt-Colonel Wannop Somjintanakul.

 

The PACC launched the investigation of the 76 centres after a corruption scandal broke out last month when a trainee at the Khon Kaen Protection Centre for the Destitute claimed she had been forced to forge official forms. The 23-year-old student, Panida Yospanya, was then joined in exposing alleged corruption by former employee Natthakan Muenpol, 26, who worked at the same centre in 2016 and had been sacked after she refused to falsify signatures.

 

On Monday, the Khon Kaen Panyapiwat Learning Centre and College of Asian Scholars presented Natthakan, an alumni of both institutes, a certificate of honour.

 

Centre director Wattana Pheukprasert said Natthakan would also be rewarded for her actions by being given the franchise rights for a 7-Eleven store and a scholarship to study a bachelor’s degree by CP All, the owner of 7-Eleven rights in Thailand and founder of Panyapiwat colleges and learning centres.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30340827

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-03-13

so what happened to the female official who admitted stealing 88 million baht then?

Well   Anupong action NOW not talk.

You can threaten all you want, action is what is needed now.

Make an example of a few, that will bring the others into line.

This rhetoric goes to show that law in Thailand is in the hands and opinions of officials.  The crime here is fraud and embezzlement and the punishment is jail full stop. Loss of job and pension should be automatic for villains.

15 minutes ago, colinneil said:

Well   Anupong action NOW not talk.

You can threaten all you want, action is what is needed now.

Make an example of a few, that will bring the others into line.

 

Dismissal and no pension, nice start, but what must also happen is criminal prosecution and mandatory jail (if found guilty), banned from any form of government service for life, and full return of every Baht.

 

Anything less is not acceptable in a civil society. 

55 minutes ago, webfact said:

He added that if officials under his ministry had committed graft, they would face severe punishment, including dismissal from the civil service without their pensions.

Yea,  but you get to keep the millions you stole, right? 

Just now, colinneil said:

Well   Anupong action NOW not talk.

You can threaten all you want, action is what is needed now.

Make an example of a few, that will bring the others into line.

Action? Of taking pensions? I'm sure they're all shaking in their boots - steal 20/50/100 Million, lose your crappy 1 Mil pension. No threat of prison time is there? Now THAT would be action.

The rank and file thieves at the bottom of the ladder will bear the brunt of any prosecutions. The distribution trail evidence of the stolen funds will peter out the higher up the pyramid it goes until it fades away completely leaving the ones at the top home free and laughing all the way to the bank.

1 hour ago, Orton Rd said:

so what happened to the female official who admitted stealing 88 million baht then?

That's another one. 

There are many. 

Of course, he never knew about it ?????

49 minutes ago, Cadbury said:

The rank and file thieves at the bottom of the ladder will bear the brunt of any prosecutions. The distribution trail evidence of the stolen funds will peter out the higher up the pyramid it goes until it fades away completely leaving the ones at the top home free and laughing all the way to the bank.

That's right. 

According to another retired official that has gone very quiet. the top knocker puts all his cronies in the head positions who then put their  cronies in lucrative places. The loot is then passed up the line. 

The cronies at the bottom get the least payoff and the highest penalty. whilst the top knockers go on to rip off the people another day. 

The theives already have their pensions for life. 

This is outrageous. So many of these 'righteous' govt-official bigots have been stealing so much govt money for so long that it is now deemed a non-crime. If one of the big banks had caught workers wrongfully filling in forms, forging signatures and stealing money they would be pressing charges and looking for something like a 15 year sentence for a list of crimes as long as your arm. The 'without pension' dismissal just reduces these criminals to a future exactly the same as any construction worker, factory labourer, farm worker or fisherman that spends their life honestly working hard on minimum wages. That anyone considers this the way to punish a govt official shows their disconnect from the real world and proper justice. 

Edited March 13, 20188 yr by Lungstib
spelling error

"Interior Minister General Anupong Paojinda on Tuesday said any state official found to be involved in alleged irregularities at provincial protection centres for the destitute would be dismissed from the civil service without a pension"..... except for him of course

Blah, blah, blah, b?llshit.... they will conveniently charge a couple of scapegoat workers on the bottom rung of the ladder. Higher up the food chain go unpunished as usual in LOS....

Stealing from the poor,and taxpayers money, should that 

mean a good few years in jail ,no wonder corruption is

so rife, nothing seems to happen if you get caught.

regards Worgeordie

1 hour ago, greenchair said:

Of course, he never knew about it ?????

Anyone who has followed this guys career will be holding their heads in dismay.

Such 'good' people.

16 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

so what happened to the female official who admitted stealing 88 million baht then?

She gets to keep the 88 million but she wont get a pension i guess. 

17 hours ago, webfact said:

He said he had not received any reports of relevant officials’ involvement.

Course not, they are still trying to bribe their way out of it !

16 hours ago, 300sd said:

The theives already have their pensions for life. 

Exactly, they should confiscate all their ill gotten gains, also if put on another name.(like invested in a house on wife's name).

 

After that they would have to go to jail for 10 years...

18 hours ago, webfact said:

He said he had not received any reports of relevant officials’ involvement.

 

So the retired Army General, leading the relevant ministry, has not received any reports?

 

Not sure that's a proper excuse, at least it didn't work out so well for the last PM?

 

I think the Interior Ministry is one of the plum jobs, maybe the top one, given the "opportunities".

 

 

 

 

so they wont jail them for fraud or seize all their assets from ill gotten gains, again we see the pathetic side to thai law or should I say the lack of it, cant set a  precedent that will effect many people in govt jobs including themselves if they are caught

So where is anti-corruption crusader PM Prayut in this scandalous stealing from the destitute racket? Nowhere to be seen or heard. Who is he safeguarding one might ask.

Seems his anti-corruption campaign is both selective and protective at the same time.

...considering that they have amassed several lifetimes of salaries already....

 

...they should be seizing and confiscating assets and bank accounts by now...

 

...and this has been going on for decades...???

 

...wow....

21 hours ago, webfact said:

Interior Minister General Anupong Paojinda on Tuesday said any state official found to be involved in alleged irregularities at provincial protection centres for the destitute would be dismissed from the civil service without a pension “to set a standard” for society.

Wow strong no nonsense warning. Start with your Burapha brother Prawit to “ set a standard for society”. This kind of hypocrisy is nauseating.  

13 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

Wow strong no nonsense warning. Start with your Burapha brother Prawit to “ set a standard for society”. This kind of hypocrisy is nauseating.  

OH Eric, its never enough for you.. first you complain nothing is done no warnings are given. Then when someone takes action and increases punishment you complain again.

 

When I told you you would do this you denied it.. but here you are doing exactly as expected. 

 

Before you complained about the silence of the government officials. I said if they are not silent you would complain about them too.. you denied.. and guess what.... you prove my point. 

Gosh, that will sting...

Dismissed from the civil service and no pension.....

19 hours ago, stephen tracy said:

"Interior Minister General Anupong Paojinda on Tuesday said any state official found to be involved in alleged irregularities at provincial protection centres for the destitute would be dismissed from the civil service without a pension"..... except for him of course

 

To be a litlle fair to him he has only been the Interior Minister for 4 years and this scam has been running for longer than that, so if you blame him for not stopping it earlier you must also balme every other Interior Minister going back some 10, 15 or even 20 years for also not stopping it.

 

It was only brought into the open this year.

42 minutes ago, robblok said:

OH Eric, its never enough for you.. first you complain nothing is done no warnings are given. Then when someone takes action and increases punishment you complain again.

 

When I told you you would do this you denied it.. but here you are doing exactly as expected. 

 

Before you complained about the silence of the government officials. I said if they are not silent you would complain about them too.. you denied.. and guess what.... you prove my point. 

Rob, I live by that principle that if you are in a compromised position like turning a blind eye to your own corruption, you don’t have any right to lecture others on corruption. If you want to take action, clean out your own corrupt backyard. You see different?

Just now, Eric Loh said:

Rob, I live by that principle that if you are in a compromised position like turning a blind eye to your own corruption, you don’t have any right to lecture others on corruption. If you want to take action, clean out your own corrupt backyard. You see different?

I live by the principle that if i say something i keep my word. When you were complaining that the goverment did not make any comments about the corruption and remained silent I said they were in a no win situation because if they had said something you would complain anyway. You denied it.. just pointing out your failings. Because here you are doing exactly what you said you would not do. Its fun to be proven right about people.

 

I see the points exactly the way you see them, but i see this as a good thing that they lose pension rights and get fired (that is if they try to get the money back that was stolen too and a fine added otherwise its non punishment). So this guy is making a good statement (if the other part is done too). This guy also has nothing to do with Prawit he is Minister of an unrelated department.  He is making statements about his department (as he should)