Destitute centre fraud found in 67 provinces

By PIYANUCH TAMNUKASETCHAI 
THE NATION 

 

 

ALLOWANCE misappropriation and related irregularities have been found at 67 provincial protection centres for the destitute, while only nine provincial centres were cleared in the massive scandal, according to results of an inquiry by the Public Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC).

 

The PACC probes didn’t find evidence of, or witnesses to, wrongdoings at the centres in Sing Buri, Chacherngsao, Prachin Buri, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Nonthaburi, Phrae, Nakhon Sawan, Sukhothai, and Uttaradit, said PACC secretary-general Korntip Daroj.

 

The PACC, which has been investigating the allegations since February, issued a summary on Monday. Korntip said the PACC board had set up sub-committees to further investigate 43 of the 67 provincial centres. Setting up sub-panels to further probe the other 24 centres would be considered on Thursday, he said.

 

The PACC had previously passed on the names of 156 state officials and employees for the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security to consider appropriate punishments, Korntip said.

 

Another 33 names have since been sent to the ministry for consideration. This brings the total number of state officials and employees facing accusations to 189, Korntip said. Once all inquiries by PACC sub-panels were completed, that number might raise beyond 250 state officials and employees, he said.

 

The wrongdoings at 67 centres were similar, and included taking villagers’ ID cards for “activities arranging” but actually using them to forge state documents to withdraw allowances that were later paid only partially to the villagers or not at all, he said.

 

There was insufficient evidence that the wrongdoings were orchestrated by an organised group, he said. It was more like that the allegedly corrupt officials shared information about their wrongdoings, resulting in copycat behaviour by officials at other centres.

 

From Tuesday, the PACC would proceed with “phase three” of its separate corruption probe against 28 self-help settlement centres, hilltribe development centres and co-op co-ordinating centres under the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security,

involving damages worth Bt100 million. This is expected to be completed in 90 days, he added.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30344329

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-05-01

 

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Kudos to the PACC for this work. I have no idea where the organization has been for the last many, many years, but now that you have woken up, keep at it!

 

However;

 

20 minutes ago, webfact said:

There was insufficient evidence that the wrongdoings were orchestrated by an organised group, he said. It was more like that the allegedly corrupt officials shared information about their wrongdoings, resulting in copycat behaviour by officials at other centres.

 

This does not seem likely or even probable. If criminals developed an effective method of theft on an industrialized scale, the idea that it wasn't organized simply does not hold up. Further, again if criminals had developed a method of industrialized theft, I somehow doubt that their methods and means were a subject of a chat over a beer with friends and/or acquaintances across the country.

 

The far more likely and far more disturbing scenario is that as soon as one of the perpetrators was promoted up out of the centers (likely through bribery with their ill-gotten gains) to the head office, that person embarked on a campaign to implement the industrialized theft across most, if not all, the centers.

 

It is a great thing that the Centers are being investigated, but this smells like a cover-up for the higher-ranking members of the Ministry. If this government is serious about fighting corruption (something very much in doubt), they should be LOUDLY egging on the investigation and offering assistance and encouragement. Their failure in doing so raises eyebrows...

 

The Junta claimed that they launched the coup for, among other reasons, cleaning up corruption. The silence on this matter at the highest level of the current government is suspiciously DEAFENING.

 

Edited April 30, 20188 yr by Samui Bodoh
Lack of coffee

Good to see the gravy boat,   is staring to sink.

Hope there will be jail time,  for the thieves. 

 

 Come on PACC give the poor unfortunate officials a break.

They have only been taking money from the poor to top up their bank accounts and help pay their mia nois,.

 The poor dears think that is ok, just the normal thing to do.

 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

There was insufficient evidence that the wrongdoings were orchestrated by an organised group

67 out of 76 offices, 189 officials involved. And we are supposed to believe they all acted independently and managed to keep it a secret from their superiors. We are all aware that in Thai govt everything operates from the top down, that's the way it is!

The PACC man has been out run by the evil weasels.

Now its up to 67 provinces. Isn´t it better to write fraud found in all provinces.

39 minutes ago, Lungstib said:

67 out of 76 offices, 189 officials involved. And we are supposed to believe they all acted independently and managed to keep it a secret from their superiors. We are all aware that in Thai govt everything operates from the top down, that's the way it is!

There were connections to higher ups and that was stated in an other news article just not to people in political parties or the junta.

 

Anyway I hope that the punishment includes hitting them where it hurts in the wallet making them pay back (an estimate) of what they stole. That would be far more effective then any other punishment. It should be done even if they go bankrupt. 

 

I fear there will be a lot of ineffective punishment , it should actually also be made a criminal case with jailtime.

 

I won't get my hopes up for this still its good that many people are caught.. but useless if no good punishment is meted out. 

2 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

Kudos to the PACC for this work. I have no idea where the organization has been for the last many, many years, but now that you have woken up, keep at it!

 

However;

 

 

This does not seem likely or even probable. If criminals developed an effective method of theft on an industrialized scale, the idea that it wasn't organized simply does not hold up. Further, again if criminals had developed a method of industrialized theft, I somehow doubt that their methods and means were a subject of a chat over a beer with friends and/or acquaintances across the country.

 

The far more likely and far more disturbing scenario is that as soon as one of the perpetrators was promoted up out of the centers (likely through bribery with their ill-gotten gains) to the head office, that person embarked on a campaign to implement the industrialized theft across most, if not all, the centers.

 

It is a great thing that the Centers are being investigated, but this smells like a cover-up for the higher-ranking members of the Ministry. If this government is serious about fighting corruption (something very much in doubt), they should be LOUDLY egging on the investigation and offering assistance and encouragement. Their failure in doing so raises eyebrows...

 

The Junta claimed that they launched the coup for, among other reasons, cleaning up corruption. The silence on this matter at the highest level of the current government is suspiciously DEAFENING.

 

I disagree with you as I have seen this kind of corruption before from other government officials that were in charge of travel and seen it in construction. Its just a real common way to steal from the budget no need for criminal master minds to come up with this.

 

My ex worked as a guide and it was years back that i was told about how each level stole a bit from the budget and the travel agency itself had to make fake invoices. Its the same method you see in construction where many take a cut. The moment you have 2 people colluding all bets are off because its almost impossible to stop that. The whole reason to separate tasks / jobs is to make corruption harder. I studied administrative organisations to prevent fraud, it was part of my education as an accountant. All you need is two people colluding who normally have to check each other and the door is wide open for fraud. 

 

Don't you think that if they could catch people higher up (and there are already reports about that they have caught those people) they would love to link them to previous governments and hang them out to dry shaming politicians and their parties even more. This problem was here before the junta so its highly likely that some of these people were connected to previous governments. The junta would love to make an example out of those people. I think they just can't prove it.

 

I agree that they probably protect those connected to the junta as we seen in the tick tock where is my clock case. But this case just predates the junta, I would not be surprised if this has been going on for decades.

There should be at least four interesting outcomes of this enquiry:

1. At what level of authority will the cut-off point be where the trail to the top suddenly gets cold?

2. Will the assets of those found guilty be sold off to repay the estimates of money stolen?

3. What will be PACC's recommendations for future audit practices for ALL Thai government agencies?  

4. Will there be criminal prosecutions or will the punishment be kept "in-house" under civil service regulations?

Edited May 1, 20188 yr by Cadbury

Totally agree with Cadbury post 10.  Public humiliation by naming and shaming the sticky-fingered ones; sacking; asset stripping and long jail time. 

3 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

Kudos to the PACC for this work. I have no idea where the organization has been for the last many, many years, but now that you have woken up, keep at it!

 

However;

 

 

This does not seem likely or even probable. If criminals developed an effective method of theft on an industrialized scale, the idea that it wasn't organized simply does not hold up. Further, again if criminals had developed a method of industrialized theft, I somehow doubt that their methods and means were a subject of a chat over a beer with friends and/or acquaintances across the country.

 

The far more likely and far more disturbing scenario is that as soon as one of the perpetrators was promoted up out of the centers (likely through bribery with their ill-gotten gains) to the head office, that person embarked on a campaign to implement the industrialized theft across most, if not all, the centers.

 

It is a great thing that the Centers are being investigated, but this smells like a cover-up for the higher-ranking members of the Ministry. If this government is serious about fighting corruption (something very much in doubt), they should be LOUDLY egging on the investigation and offering assistance and encouragement. Their failure in doing so raises eyebrows...

 

The Junta claimed that they launched the coup for, among other reasons, cleaning up corruption. The silence on this matter at the highest level of the current government is suspiciously DEAFENING.

 

Silence is most effective in cases like this.

Loudmouthing is contraproductive.

 

AMAZING THAILAND !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I know our local officials were all involved. I dont understand why they are still working and getting a salary. Why arent they in prison. It's a pretty dispicable act. Absolutely nothings been done.  Corruptuon is out of control. Yet again las night people broke in destroying fences etc to steal frogs from our pond. Dam police said we arent friendly and will come tomorrow. But, we want to press  charges for tresspassing and destruction of property. Maybe the same police force are in charge of hunting down officials. Lazy greedy pricks yhe lot of them. No shame and definitely not a Buddhist mentality.

4 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

Kudos to the PACC for this work. I have no idea where the organization has been for the last many, many years, but now that you have woken up, keep at it!

 

However;

 

 

This does not seem likely or even probable. If criminals developed an effective method of theft on an industrialized scale, the idea that it wasn't organized simply does not hold up. Further, again if criminals had developed a method of industrialized theft, I somehow doubt that their methods and means were a subject of a chat over a beer with friends and/or acquaintances across the country.

 

The far more likely and far more disturbing scenario is that as soon as one of the perpetrators was promoted up out of the centers (likely through bribery with their ill-gotten gains) to the head office, that person embarked on a campaign to implement the industrialized theft across most, if not all, the centers.

 

It is a great thing that the Centers are being investigated, but this smells like a cover-up for the higher-ranking members of the Ministry. If this government is serious about fighting corruption (something very much in doubt), they should be LOUDLY egging on the investigation and offering assistance and encouragement. Their failure in doing so raises eyebrows...

 

The Junta claimed that they launched the coup for, among other reasons, cleaning up corruption. The silence on this matter at the highest level of the current government is suspiciously DEAFENING.

 

If a system has none or little, checks and balances,the weakness is easily exploited. An organized mastermind theory isn't always the cause. Imo

Cleaning up corruption the size of Thailand problem is impossible in 3 years. If "cleaning up" were to occur as quickly as it became apparent, the country would be brought to a stand still... that would be a far greater problem than the billions being stolen.This government has navigated a number of corruption cases and still held together the system. It will take generations to reverse the systemic failures that result in corruption.IMO

In other news, PACC officials woke up administrators in nine provinces, who appeared to be comatose.

26 minutes ago, Curmudgeon1 said:

If a system has none or little, checks and balances,the weakness is easily exploited. An organized mastermind theory isn't always the cause. Imo

Cleaning up corruption the size of Thailand problem is impossible in 3 years. If "cleaning up" were to occur as quickly as it became apparent, the country would be brought to a stand still... that would be a far greater problem than the billions being stolen.This government has navigated a number of corruption cases and still held together the system. It will take generations to reverse the systemic failures that result in corruption.IMO

You make some interesting points.

 

However, given the nature of Thai society and its hierarchical structure, I'll stand by my idea of a person or (more likely) persons setting up and running the scam; it just seems logical given what we know. While it is possible, I find the idea of 67 similar scams running independently of each other as unlikely. My humble opinion.

 

I fully agree that cleaning up corruption in general and this criminal enterprise in particular is going to take MUCH longer than three years; it'll be a generational thing. That said, I do not see a serious, sustained effort on the part of the Junta to get it started; anti-corruption efforts depend on political will and political backing and I don't see it. The Junta/Prayut used Article 44 to give some immunity to prosecutors and investigators for Yingluck's case, why not here? That would be a powerful signal. Or why not use 10 minutes of his TV show to talk about this scam and pledge to root it all out? Again, a powerful signal. Or why not go to the Ministry and make a speech with the cameras on? Again, a powerful signal.

 

If the Junta treats this as "ho-hum', then people will doubt their commitment to cleaning up corruption. I certainly do. And when people doubt the commitment, then anti-corruption efforts fail.

 

Finally, you mention that this government has "navigated a number of corruption cases". I saw the case of Yingluck/rice pledging scheme which I considered political more than anything. What others outside of the rice-pledging scheme? I seriously can't think of any off the top of my head. Did anyone go to jail? Again, I can't think of a single person. Who?

 

Cheers

 

 

Edited May 1, 20188 yr by Samui Bodoh
Lack of coffee

Is there a honest Thai bureaucrat?

One?

10 hours ago, webfact said:

Destitute centre fraud found in 67 provinces

There are 77 provinces in Thailand.  So, who's collected the 10 brown envelopes!

7 hours ago, Anak Nakal said:

Is there a honest Thai bureaucrat?

One?

I very much doubt there are a lot, though the odds are there are a few. I have suggested that 80% of Thais are corrupt or otherwise dishonest. 67/77 is 87%, give or take, so the rule of 80/20 does seem like a reasonable guestimate.

 

Like many people, I have personal experience of seeing corruption taking place at a fairly junior level in Bangkok.

 

Of course not all people in the 67 provinces are corrupt, but I should think everyone knew there was corruption going on. The bush telegraph (gossip network) in Thailand compensates for the lack of formal communications in society, it is both very effective and ubiquitous. If a provincial administration is corrupt in any areas, then everyone knows about it for sure and most are probably benefitting from it. Not brown envelopes but the petty cash tin comes out pretty regularly.

Edited May 1, 20188 yr by KiwiKiwi

13 hours ago, Lungstib said:

67 out of 76 offices, 189 officials involved. And we are supposed to believe they all acted independently and managed to keep it a secret from their superiors. We are all aware that in Thai govt everything operates from the top down, that's the way it is!

I think maybe someone reversed the numbers .....

Imagine living in this society and trying to be honest. Then you get some idea of the problems they face. Not that it's anything new. Throughout history honest people have been setup as icons. It's that rare.

people stealing from the poor... just wow... but hey, even my MIL is stealing money from me monthly

 

 

All things considered, I think there should be congratulations given for not having 100% of the  centers  corrupted.

Yingluck was sentenced for deriluction of duty while being a PM in the Rice scheme case.

Will Prayuth be sentenced for deriluction of duty while being a PM in this and many other cases (the watches scandal; the Panter scandal, etc.) in the 4 years he has been already PM.

Pot calling the kettle black?