Three In Race For Thai Senate Speaker

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NEW SENATE SPEAKER

Three in race for Senate speaker

THE NATION

Thiradet disqualified after being found guilty of malfeasance for giving himself a pay rise when he was Ombudsman

BANGKOK: -- Three senators have emerged as strong contenders for the position of Senate speaker, replacing Thiradet Meepien who was penalised for awarding himself a pay rise when he was the Ombudsman in 2004.

The Criminal Court yesterday found Senate Speaker Thiradet, another former ombudsman and a former secretary-general of the Office of Ombudsmen guilty of malfeasance in issuing a regulation to grant themselves a pay increase.

Thiradet and Poolsup Piya-anant, another former ombudsman, were given two-year suspended sentences while Pramote Chotemongkol, former secretary-general of the Office of Ombudsmen, was given a one-year-and-four-month suspended jail term.

Following the ruling, Deputy Senate Speaker Nikom Waiyaratphanit said Thiradet was disqualified as Senate speaker and the new one would be elected on August 6.

Article 124 (4) states that the Senate speaker must be disqualified once given a jail term, regardless of whether imprisonment is suspended or not.

The three candidates for the position of Senate speaker are Deputy Senate Speaker Nikom Wairatpanij, Direk Tuengfung and Pichet Soontornpipit. Nikom and Direk are holding elected seats from Chachoengsao and Nonthaburi respectively, while Pichet is an appointee nominated by the academic sector.

Nikom is presently the acting speaker pending the nomination of Thiradet's successor for royal appointment. He and Direk are seen as close to the Pheu Thai Party and will likely strike a deal between themselves in order to avoid undermining the other for a chance to secure the nomination.

Commenting on the upcoming race, Direk said he was undecided whether to contest for the position again. He had lost to Thiradet in the previous contest.

"I think, however, it is high time for an elected senator to become the speaker," he said, pointing out that two appointed senators, including Thiradet, had carried the Senate's torch since 2008.

He said in his opinion, Nikom is well qualified for the job since he has been serving as the deputy speaker.

The Criminal Court yesterday found Thiradet, Poolsup and Pramote Chotemongkol guilty of collaborating to issue a regulation to give themselves a pay increase of Bt20,000 a month without authority. The court ruled that the pay increase needed to be approved by the Cabinet and enacted as a law by Parliament.

The crime was committed between July 29 and September 30, 2004, the court was told.

The court was told that when Thiradet and Poolsup were ombudsmen, Pramote assisted them in issuing the regulation to give themselves a fixed meeting allowance of Bt20,000 a month.

Pramote used a regulation on meeting allowances for the Constitution Court as a guideline to draft the regulation for the Office of Ombudsmen.

The regulation was issued on July 30, 2004 with a retroactive dating to July 1, 2004. The three had received the Bt20,000 monthly allowance for three months before returning the money after the National Anti-Corruption Commission started a malfeasance probe against them.

The Criminal Court ruled that since the Bt20,000 was paid in a fixed amount on monthly basis, it had to be regarded as part of the salary, which the three had no authority to approve for themselves.

Their jail terms were suspended on the grounds that they have no criminal record.

-- The Nation 2012-07-26

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Senate speaker gets suspended jail term for granting himself a pay increase

[chotthee]

Another one of these elected senator caught red handed.

This is the reason why we should have an all selected senator house, as many of the elected one buy their seats during the senate election.