ThaiHealth denies funds were misappropriated

Krisada Reung-areerat, manager of ThaiHealth, yesterday attempted to set the record straight by insisting that the committee heard only one side of a story and misinterpreted ThaiHealth’s work.

“We insist that the claim that we spent the budget on projects that were irrelevant to our objectives is a misjudgement that resulted from the auditors considering a different point of view,” Krisada stressed.

“All the money we spent went on projects to support the well-being of Thai people according to our objectives and the World Health Organisation’s Ottawa Charter,” he said. 

Yesterday, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha ordered the suspension of some of the organisation’s budget, but Krisada insisted that ThaiHealth experienced no such budget cancellation and it was able to disburse its budget for 2016 as normal.

Government spokesman Major-Gen Sansern Kaewkamnerd clarified later yesterday that the probe did not mean corruption had occurred at ThaiHealth, but said the prime minister wanted to check on the agency’s work and whether it adhered to regulations. The Public Health Minister was assigned to find appropriate ways to deal with this matter, he said.

Krisada noted a subsidy from ThaiHealth to the Cross Year Prayer Project as an example of a project the committee saw as not directly related to public health. But he said it did in fact encourage people to attend prayer ceremonies instead of going to parties and drinking alcohol. “This project was very successful in saving many lives from drink-driving accidents during the New Year period,” he said.

However, he said it would cause major trouble for many useful projects if part of the budget was suspended, as ThaiHealth does a lot of good work.

Krisada said ThaiHealth has more than 1,200 experts whose duty was to consider proposed projects and decide if they are suitable to receive funding. For large-scale projects that cost more than Bt20 million, the ThaiHealth board considers if they should be funded.

He also revealed that the organisation is often inspected every year by outside auditors who check its operations.

“Therefore, a very prudent standard has been applied to all project that are considered. Further, the ThaiHealth committee also improves project consideration measures every year to ensure the transparency of funding,” he said.

Krisada also dismissed the allegation that ThaiHealth was accused of funding projects in which its executives were involved. He insisted that such conflicts of interest never occurred, without going into more detail.

However, he conceded that some projects subsidised by ThaiHealth may be construed as a misuse of funds. He revealed that every year the organisation finds at least five projects with misuse funds or engage in corruption – but said it takes legal action against offenders in every case.

“We are now preparing information to defend ourselves against all allegations made against our organisation, as much of the information on the Monitoring and Auditing Committee on Fiscal Expenditures report is incorrect or misinterpreted,” he said.