Prayut turns up heat on crooked civil servants
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha revealed during yesterday's Cabinet meeting his impatience over the lack of progress of the corruption probe of high-ranking civil servants and he called for a single, shared database on corruption for all ministries.
Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd, the deputy government spokesperson, said Prayut requested that the investigation of high-ranking servants be speeded up to avoid public criticism.
Prayut earlier used his powers under Article 44 to move some civil servants with the ranks of C8 and higher to work at the centre as they were considered potentially corrupt. His action came after he received reports on corruption from National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), Office of Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) and Office of the Auditor General (OAG).
Prayut also has concerns over delicacy of the investigations, Sansern added, and he originally had not wished to hurry them. However, the PM later said he hoped they would not be too slow to avoid public doubts over the investigations.
Civil servants of lower ranks are also a concern. However, they will remain in their positions as the government considers them only minor actors.
Sansern said they received only a few corruption reports involving middle-ranked and low-ranked officers. Thus, it was agreed in the meeting that all ministries should share their information to create a single database on corruption cases for more efficient anti-corruption actions.
“Some ministries have gathered information to create such a database [on corruption]. However, they haven’t had a chance to use them as part of the investigation yet,” said Sansern, adding that by uniting all databases, the information would be more accessible and more useful for investigators.
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