KMITL sets up panel to fill operational loopholes
PANYA THIOSANGWAN,
SUPACHAI PETCHTHEWEE
THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- KING MONGKUT'S Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL) has set up a committee to fill loopholes in regulations related to finances, Privy Councillor General Surayud Chulanont, who is also chancellor of KMITL's Council, said yesterday.

He said that it was up to the police to investigate the Bt1.5 billion embezzlement and theft case as well as retrieve the money that should have been spent on education. Surayud said that a committee of experts has been set up to remove loopholes in regulations related to the handling of finances, personnel management and administration as well as set up a stricter approval procedure, he added.

Crime Suppression Division deputy chief Pol Colonel Nos Sawetlek yesterday said three individuals - Theerayuth Sahakorn-udomkan, Seksit Thipjindachai and On-kanya Siwakamolkorn - have yet to provide an explanation about the millions of baht they received from fugitive suspect Kittisak Matujad. Hence, he said, police would issue summonses for them today.

KMITL's director of legal affairs, Worawan Suwannakut and deputy rector Chamroon Laosinwattana, who chairs the institute-assigned probing committee, joined the police's yesterday examination of 14 Siam Commercial Bank cashier cheques. Chamroon said these cashier cheques of hundreds of millions of baht addressed mainly to the suspects Kittisak and Poonsak Boonsawat in 2013-2014.

"We want to know who signed the order to purchase these cashier cheques and which accounts they money were from, so if we get further documents from the bank, it would become clearer," he said adding that KMITL regulations didn't allow the cashier cheque addressing a ordinary individual except for construction payment or product buying.

He said such cashier cheques could be regarded as corruption.

Normally the Finance Division would supervise the cashier cheque purchases and those authorised to sign them were executives such as rector, deputy rectors and rector assistants, Chamroon explained, the person who could directly ordered a cashier cheque purchase without authorisation was the rector.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/KMITL-sets-up-panel-to-fill-operational-loopholes-30252952.html


-- The Nation 2015-01-30

Another committee, this one to remove loopholes in regulations related to the handling of finances etc.

Pity such a committee didn't formulate the regs better in the first place.

Stable Door Horse Bolted

If KMITL were a private company, Privy Councillor General Surayud Chulanont would be out of a job for allowing the operational loopholes to exist in the first place. At a minimum it's negligence, at worse it's dereliction of duty. Maybe the NACC needs to investigate Surayud's actions or lack of actions that not only created the opportunity for embezzlement, but allowed it to continue undetected.