Anti-Corruption Deputy Secretary-General fired for corruption

In politics, the phrase “every accusation is a confession” is a common cry, but the irony may be too on the nose after the National Anti-Corruption Commission Deputy Secretary-General Prayad Puangchampa was fired for having amassed an unusual amount of wealth. The commission asserted that the massive wealth gathered should become the property of the state and be confiscated from Prayad.

The NACC acts as a watchdog against corruption, but today they acted on one of their own, with the chairman signing an order confirming the deputy secretary-general’s dismissal yesterday. The firing comes after accounts and assets, many of which were stashed abroad, was uncovered, revealing 658 million baht in personal wealth. Though his exact salary isn’t confirmed, it is certainly too low to amass such extreme wealth.

And the money was allegedly hidden away as well. NACC officials say that Prayad made false statements about six assets, valued at around two million baht, to deliberately conceal the wealth when he was confirmed to the post in January 2017. Those items were held within Thailand but under his spouse’s name.

But since 2019, four other high-value assets were uncovered, stashed in other countries, and valued at a staggering 225 million baht.

The Office of the Attorney-General has now received all details of the investigation by the NACC, everything they discovered, the decision to fire him, and suggestions on how to handle the likely ill-gotten gains. That Attorney-General Office will then be the one to pursue the prosecution of Prayad at the Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases.

The NACC is the department that takes on high-profile corruption cases and investigates them to seek justice. Recent cases include that of the Deputy Minister of Education accused of a land deal that encroached on a National Park, and a police officer accused of soliciting bribes from residents in Chiang Mai. Last year they investigated the confusingly wealthy officer Joe Ferrari after he suffocated a suspect in police custody, and previously they investigated the shocking number of extremely expensive watches worn by now acting Caretaker Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwant.

SOURCE: Thai PBS World