Warders sacked over drugs, phones, AWOL
Fourteen prison guards have been fired for involvement in narcotics, cell phone smuggling and absence from duty, Corrections Department chief Wittaya Suriyawong said yesterday.
The department’s civil service sub-panel resolved to fire three guards for possessing narcotics, 10 guards for smuggling cell phones, drugs or other prohibited items into prison and one guard for absence from his post for over 15 days, Wittaya said. In the past six months, the department had fired nine prison officials, dismissed seven others from the civil service and transferred 51 guards as a disciplinary punishment in response to the department’s tough policy on drugs and cell phone smuggling, he said.
The department will soon submit for the Cabinet’s consideration a prison guards’ pay hike - monthly overtime pay to rise Bt800 from a previous Bt400; and position allowance to be Bt6,000 a month from the previously Bt1,200, he added. Their basic salary usually ranges from Bt11,000 to about Bt15,000.
