Phuket Governor and Vice Governor deny million baht bribe accusation

[webfact]

Phuket Governor and Vice Governor deny million baht bribe accusation

By The Thaiger

 

 

Recently, an audio clip went viral, claiming to have recorded a conversation between an anonymous man and an employee from a project accused of having encroached on Sirinat National Park (in Phuket’s north west).

 

Phuket Governor, Pakkapong Tawipat, says that he had nothing to do with the voice recording, which detailed a 7 digit negotiation deal to end an encroachment case over the encroachment case.

 

Phuket Hotnews reports that, in the recording, the voice of an anonymous man can be heard calling the employee of a project owner, who had been charged over land encroachment.

 

The man on the phone asked for a 7 digit amount in order to drop the case, mentioning that the person who would sign on the case would be the Vice Governor Supot Rodruang Na Nongkhai, and that the Governor was aware of the matter as well.

 

The voice clip reveals the conversation between the anonymous man and the female employee of the illegal project, “Have you reached a conclusion? Everyone is waiting for the answer”, while the employee replied that she already informed her boss that the money they wanted is in the millions, but her boss questioned why do they have to pay and where the money is going to go.

 

“Is it for the Governor? And who sign the papers?”

 

The man replied that Vice Governor Supot is the one who signs and that he knew about the negotiation and that there were 2 documents drafted in different ways.

 

The man also mentioned the name of a Phuket provincial Prosecutor and claimed that the prosecutor is very powerful as he had extended powers from the new laws enacted by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO).

 

The man also said that if they face any issues, the owner of the project would be blacklisted and it would be difficult for him to travel to and out of Thailand.

 

The woman on the line proceeded to make an appointment for her boss to meet with the ‘prosecutor’.

 

After the voice clip went viral, Governor Pakkapong said that he was made aware of the recording of the conversation earlier this month and that he had asked Vice Governor Supot, who was accused of bribery in the clip as well, to make a report to the police on August 6, in order to prove their transparency. He also reported the matter to his commander.

 

“I insist that the Vice Governor and I have nothing to do with the voice recording and we were falsely accused as being involved. This could have come from an individual from a “certain organisation” (un-named) that has called for bribes and used Governor’s and Vice Governor’s names for their benefits.

“After reporting the matter to the police we are waiting for an investigation and to see whether I have to take part as an informer,” said the Governor.

 

He said that the encroachment case is an old case from 2013. The Thalang District Chief has an agreement to prosecute the encroacher but when the case went to the provincial prosecutor, the prosecutor declined to prosecute the case and sent it back to Police Region 8.

 

The Police Region 8 sent the case back to Phuket provincial attorney office who would have to file the case to the Phuket Governor, but he insists that the case has not been filed yet.

 

The Phuket Governor said that he also informed the company that owns the project that he has never learned about the bribe and in any case, if anyone uses his name to ask for bribe, please contact him immediately because he has never asked for bribes and is ready to work on every case openly.

 

Meanwhile, Phuket Vice Governor Supot said that he has already reported to the police about the accusations in the voice recording and insists that he has nothing to do with it either.

 

SOURCE: Phuket Hotnews

 

Source: https://thethaiger.com/news/phuket/phuket-governor-and-vice-governor-deny-million-baht-bribe-accusation

 

 

-- © Copyright The Thaiger 2019-08-21

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

[beechbum]

Wonder if the unnamed owners from China or Singapore, I'd bet it's one or the other.

As for those named, doubt there's anything like the truth coming from any of them....

 

 

[tracker1]

Thailand's main vocabulary word "DENY" second word "DENY third "DENY" because Uncle Tu has cleaned up corruption so it can't be true

[colinneil]

Sad thing is, its going on everywhere, from the highest down to lowly clerks now.

Almost everyone in a position to get bribes is at it.

When caught out, deny, deny, deny.

[Oziex1]

The government is cracking down on corruption, still. 

[worgeordie]

That's the plan to buy a new Merc out the window.........until next time.

regards worgeordie

[Psimbo]

I believe the Gov- no one at that level would be tempted by such a measly sum. ????

 

Thank you for the interest from other provinces though.

[mok199]

Deny deflect distract defend...4D

[the guest]

They both should have big noses by now.

[observer90210]

The pathetic "anti corruption" steps in Thailand, are becomming a laughing stock towards the rest of the world.

[RichardColeman]

 I sense a newly appointed committee to look into this

[Mises]

A million baht is not even peanuts.

There is a large development north of Layan that will make $100 million plus, maybe $ 1 billion.  No one ever owned that land. Ditto the land at Tri-Sara.

 

[spidermike007]

Hundreds of millions of baht, would be far more likely. This kind of thing is a daily occurrence for these guys. No accountability, and rarely ever any prosecution. 

[steelepulse]

From what I understand from parties that were directly involved in the suit involving illegal buildings on the beach in Rawai, 10 million was up on offer for the redrawing of median high tide lines and subsequent approval, so I have no doubt that these bigger developments need a huge bribe to be allowed to build.  

 

Also wasn't a past vice governor of Phuket pinched for taking bribes in regards to illegal land titles?

[klauskunkel]

Look how they scurry and squirm to look clean, while the case in question is being sent from police to prosecutor back to police back to prosecutor to governor to where is it now? ... the case must be on Thailand's roadmap u-turning happily in line with the government's 5-year-plan.

 

Edited August 22, 2019 by klauskunkel

[rudi49jr]

They would deny stealing cookies while getting caught with both hands in the cookie jar.

[Sydebolle]

On one side they try to grill the government over a oath being recited incompletely.

On the other side, those who served oaths are possibly not essentially doing "all in their power to the best of people, faith and leadership".

Welcome to Disneyland - real actors, real scenes and real stories! 

[grumpy 4680]

       If the Governor and Vice Governor had not been involved, then the encroachment issue would never had gone away, Why does it take so long to resolve these matters, more bribes ??????

[xylophone]

3 hours ago, klauskunkel said:

Look how they scurry and squirm to look clean, while the case in question is being sent from police to prosecutor back to police back to prosecutor to governor to where is it now? ... the case must be on Thailand's roadmap u-turning happily in line with the government's 5-year-plan.

 

One doesn't have to speculate too much to understand why this particular case has been going backwards and forwards, from the police, the prosecutor and the governor, ad infinitum.

 

Pretty much par for course here along with a myriad of other cases, yet the people involved seem to think that they are covering their tracks and nobody but nobody ever considers them to be corrupt – – yet the opposite is true and everybody knows they are on the take. it is part of life here.

[DrDave]

This looks to be a roughly 3 billion baht project, in terms of unit sales. So, let's say that the developer budgets 1% of sales for bribes required to get the project approved, that's 30 million baht. Most likely it's far more than that - 3.5% would be over 100 million baht payable to the local civil servants charged with upholding the law and acting in the best interests of their citizens.

[Joe Mcseismic]

Phuket is the plum in assignment of Provincial Governors.

It's usually an older man who generally retires once his governorship ends.

The best place to have that final feed at the trough.