Obec chief faces investigation
The education minister has assigned a grave-disciplinary-offence committee to investigate Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) chief Chinnapat Bhumirat for dereliction of duty, Deputy Education Minister Sermsak Pongpanich said yesterday.
The committee, headed by Commission on Higher Education chief Apichart Jeerawut, has been urged to undertake the probe speedily.
If Chinnapat feels he has not received fair treatment, he can appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board within 30 days, Sermsak said.
He insisted that the investigation was not a bullying tactic and that it would be carried out with transparency.
He will await the panel’s comments before deciding whether to transfer Chinnapat to another post pending the probe results, he added.
The deputy minister said that if the accused were to be found guilty by such a disciplinary probe, it could result in the individual’s employment termination, dismissal or dishonourable discharge and that, even in the case of a retiring official, the punishment could affect their post-retirement benefits.
Although the Education Ministry’s fact-finding panel - led by permanent secretary Panita Kambhu na Ayutthaya - that looked into widespread cheating in a recent assistant-teacher recruitment examination also recommended disciplinary investigations into three other officials, Sermsak said he had proposed that that only Chinnapat be probed because the others were at a lower level of command.
Besides, further fact-finding would be needed first.
The other officials cited by the fact-finding panel are Chinnapat’s deputy Anan Ra-ngabtook, former Obec assistant chief Suthep Chittayawong, and Suthep Chittayawong, former director of Obec’s Bureau of Personnel Administration Development Management and Legal Affairs.
Meanwhile, 48 assistant teachers in Nakhon Ratchasima, who were among the 344 assistant teachers under 119 primary educational zones that the Department of Special Investigation deemed to be involved in recruitment-exam cheating, remained in post as of yesterday.
The authorities want to dismiss them in accordance with Office of Teacher Civil Service and Educational Personnel Commission procedure, and are therefore awaiting the commission’s formal May 17 resolution letter before taking action.
