Group wants Ombudsman to probe top cop

[webfact]

Group wants Ombudsman to probe top cop
By PRATCH RUJIVANAROM 
THE NATION

 

Sanit

 

Sanit under fire for Bt50,000 monthly salary from Thaibev.

 

BANGKOK: -- AN activist group plans to file a petition with the Ombudsman’s Office against the Bangkok police chief today after it was disclosed that he receives Bt50,000 per month for serving as an adviser to a major alcoholic drinks company.

 

Pol Lt-General Sanit Mahathavorn, the Metropolitan Police commissioner and a National Legislative Assembly (NLA) member, was revealed to have a position as an adviser for Thai Beverage Plc (ThaiBev), a major producer of alcoholic drinks. He has received the salary from the firm since 2015, according to his financial reports disclosed by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) last week.

 

Srisuwan Janya, secretary-general of the Association to Protect the Thai Constitution, has asked the Ombudsman’s Office to investigate whether Sanit, a civil servant, had violated a code of ethics.

 

Full story: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30301981

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2016-12-13

[optad]

If this 'forced' regime has any respect for law it will assess this policeman's office and release findings. 

 

It smells. I would like to advise a beverage company too. No fee required.

[yellowboat]

Anti-corruption and reform junta ?   It does not look that way.   

[worgeordie]

Go on,give him a good probing.

regards worgeordie

[klauskunkel]

He does look a bit drunk in this picture...which makes him under the influence of Thai Bev in more than one sense

[Baerboxer]

5 hours ago, optad said:

If this 'forced' regime has any respect for law it will assess this policeman's office and release findings. 

 

It smells. I would like to advise a beverage company too. No fee required.

 

He declared it. Never tried to hide it.

 

Politicians and civil servants the world over become advisers and non executive directors to offer their expertise to businesses. Of course, they'd never allow the wishes of those businesses to influence them 

[Caveat Emptor]

Two possible choices, a quick statement saying there's nothing to investigate or a supposed ' investigation ' that finds nothing wrong.

[elgordo38]

7 hours ago, optad said:

If this 'forced' regime has any respect for law it will assess this policeman's office and release findings. 

 

It smells. I would like to advise a beverage company too. No fee required.

Just drop off the odd case in the middle of the night.

[elgordo38]

1 hour ago, Baerboxer said:

 

He declared it. Never tried to hide it.

 

Politicians and civil servants the world over become advisers and non executive directors to offer their expertise to businesses. Of course, they'd never allow the wishes of those businesses to influence them 

Being a top cop should put him outside the realm of this. There could be a future conflict of interest. 

[waldroj]

Even though it is highly likely that Pol Lt-General Sanit Mahathavorn will be deemed to have done nothing wrong (by Thai Civil Service ethics standards), I would suggest his actions can be construed as setting a bad example for RTP subordinates.

 

I also think he is lucky that the activist petitioning the Ombudsman’s Office against him has a long track record of petty grievances against the junta and its cronies - and this will surely influence the outcome in Mahathavorn's favour.

 

As a quick Google search has revealed, Srisuwan Janya seems to take any opportunity to voice his displeasure at the junta and its cronies, as shown below:

• In September this year, he filed a petition with the Ombudsman claiming the MahaNakhon Tower breached Thai laws on foreign workers.
• In May this year, he was summoned by the army for “attitude adjustment”
• In October 2015, he lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman, calling for a probe into the ethics of Prayut and Wissanu Krea-ngam for giving NRSA jobs to Wissanu’s family members and "a large number of military officers".
• In August 2015, he called for an ethics investigation into several NRC members claiming they were campaigning against the draft constitution.
• In March 2015, he threatened to take the “government” to the Administrative Court if cabinet refused to review their decision to allow the current operator of the Blue Line to negotiate for the right to operate the extensions of the Blue Line without an open bidding.
• In January 2015, he urged the National Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the “government” over their ฿7.1 million expenditure of LINE stickers promoting Prayut’s “12 core values”.
• In August 2014, he submitted a letter to the office of the Ombudsman asking the Constitutional Court to rule on the legitimacy of the newly-appointed 200-member NLA. At that time he pointed out that the NLA heavily overwhelmed with military and police personnel.  He also noted that several members of the NLA were friends, classmates, relatives or people close to the NCPO and this might constitute a conflict of interests.

 

That said, it seems that his activities go way back, well before the coup. Back in 2009, he won a major environmental lawsuit leading to an injunction halting $9 billion worth of projects in the Map Ta Phut industrial zone.

 

Interestingly, at that time he is recorded as saying, “Don’t forget that in Thailand, police can be bought” !!!

 

Clearly, he has not changed his opinion.

[Jonmarleesco]

11 hours ago, webfact said:

Srisuwan Janya, secretary-general of the Association to Protect the Thai Constitution, has asked the Ombudsman’s Office to investigate whether Sanit, a civil servant, had violated a code of ethics.

 

He's RTP. How could he violate something that doesn't exist?

[ballpoint]

6 hours ago, elgordo38 said:

Being a top cop should put him outside the realm of this. There could be a future conflict of interest. 

Yes, he might be offered a few bottles of the competition's output as a bribe some time.  (But being a man of honour, would surely turn it down....)