PACC chief wonders which 'hot issue' knocked him out

“I can tell you that the suspects behind some big cases are quite close to certain influential figures,” Dusadee said yesterday at an exclusive interview with The Nation.

He has less than a month in his post as PACC secretary-general before he is moved on October 1 to the seat of the Justice Ministry’s deputy permanent secretary. 

Though Dusadee did not name any particular politician, he did mention a few hot cases such as the smuggling of luxury cars, the use of fake documents to get loans from banks, illegal land rights issued for coveted plots in Phuket and resorts encroaching into forests on Trat’s Koh Chang. He also mentioned alleged corruption in the government’s flood-relief projects. 

All these cases involve billions of baht. 

“I investigated budget reimbursement in flood-relief projects not because I want to blow up the government, but because I wanted to check if the flood victims really got help,” he said. 

 

‘GRAFT PROBE MAY HAVE KICKED IT OFF’

He added that investigation into the flood-relief projects might have just been a catalyst for the decision to have him transferred out of the PACC. He said that maybe he stood in the way of others in several cases because he always took strict action based on evidence. 

“Once a former classmate called to attack me, saying ‘if you make such arrests, you are not our friend, you are on their side’,” Dusadee recounted. 

When he rose to the helm of the PACC last year, he was seen as a red-shirt supporter. Yet today he is seen as a man losing out to the powers-that-be. 

“I don’t think there is an ‘our side’ or a ‘their side’ when it comes to corruption. In my opinion, we must let justice run its course,” the 52-year-old reflected. 

Despite the apparent move to kick him upstairs, Dusadee does not seem to have lost heart. He still has eight years in civil service and said he would do his best in his new job. He said he is determined to push for true justice in society. 

He also said that PACC had seen frequent changes in leadership, adding that all his predecessors had served at the helm for just about a year on average. 

“I have had discussions on political interference with the National Anti-Corruption Commission before and have told them to push ahead if the PACC gets struck down by politicians. We will make sure that corrupt officials end up having to spend sleepless nights,” he said. 

Dusadee added that Justice Minister Pracha Promnok had summoned him last Saturday to tell him about the transfer. 

“At the meeting, he did not ask what I was working on but was just interested in how he should arrange the move,” he said.