Kamala OrBorTor President removed over corruption allegations

KAMALA: Jaral Sararak, President of Kamala Tambon Administration Organization (OrBorTor), has been dismissed over allegations of rampant corruption.

The order removing him from office, signed February 23 by Kathu District Chief Khantee Silapa, followed an investigation requested by Sorranun Sane, Chairman of the OrBorTor Board.

K. Khantee told the Gazette, “We have investigated Jaral many times for a lack of transparency in his work. From investigating the income from OrBorTor garbage collection we have concluded that there is definitely corruption.

“We examined the figures for Kamala OrBorTor‘s income from garbage collection and found that the OrBorTor received only about 3,000 baht per month. The real figure should have been far higher.”

The OrBorTor board now needs to select a new President from its 11 remaining members within 15 days. A by-election for Jaral’s Village 1 constituency seat will be held within 60 days, K. Khantee said.

K. Sorranun claimed that K. Jaral had profited personally from his position. “I’m the person who requested that the Kathu District Office investigate him. I’ve known about his behavior since he took office.

“The clearest case of corruption involves garbage collection. Every house in the constituency must pay 30 baht per month. There are also four hotels that pay between 30,000 to 40,000 baht per month in total.

“From these proceeds, Jaral handed over only about 3,000 baht a month to the OrBorTor. Jaral has a background in the garbage collection business. I and many other officers warned him about this, but he didn’t stop,” said K. Sorranun, alleging that Jaral’s company was using OrBorTor trucks to collect garbage without a contract.

Jaral told the Gazette that the charges against him were unfair and that he was being framed by K. Sorranun and the Chairman of the OrBorTor, with whom he had a long-term dispute.

“I’m new here, I became OrBorTor President in 2004. The OrBorTor Chairman and its Chief Administrative Officer have been here much longer than me so have much more influence. They have been trying to unseat me with corruption allegations for a long time now. I managed to get a budget of more than 100 million baht from the government for OrBorTor Kamala. No other President has been able to do that in the past.

“There was corruption in the OrBorTor garbage collection service. I, however, was not responsible. There were many officers involved, especially accounts officers. If I were still President, I would launch an investigation into the matter,” Jaral said.