FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Army claims widespread embezzlement of state funds at southern schools

Army claims widespread embezzlement of state funds at southern schools

Fourth Army Region chief Lt Gen Piyawat Nakwanich alleged on Monday evening that officials at six Islamic schools in Pattani were involved in misappropriating up to Bt700 million a year in state subsidies.

He said some of the officials were also linked to the violent insurrection in the southern border provinces.
Piyawat said only 40 per cent of the Bt1.26 billion allocated to Pattani for education had been used for that purpose, while the rest was embezzled.
He said the irregularities had hampered the education of 101,000 of the province’s 165,072 students and affected 4,000 teachers.
Piyawat said a January 27 search at Bakong Pittaya School in Nong Chik district turned up documents allegedly about fomenting social discord, as well as cooking gas and fire-extinguisher cylinders that were suspiciously hidden from view.
Such cylinders can be used in making bombs.
Pattani Special Task Force commander Jatuporn Kalamphasut said officials at the school had misappropriated state funds.
As evidence, he said at least three students registered as attending classes there were not. Receipts for textbook procurement were falsified, with school staff “admitting” they’d only bought 20 per cent of the books listed.
Teachers were being paid Bt7,000-Bt8,000 a month, far less than the Education Ministry standard of Bt15,000. Administrators claimed the teachers consented to the lower pay so that other teachers who were not formally instated could be hired.
The instated teachers were paid a risk contingency allowance of Bt1,000-Bt1,500 per month each, again lower than the ministry rate of Bt2,500, again so the difference could go to non-instated teachers.
Receipts for expenditures of state funds were falsified with exaggerated amounts in a conspiracy with business operators who were paid to issue the receipts.
Jatuporn said Bakong Pittaya School officials also supported perpetrators of the insurrection. Since 2011, a monthly payment was made to suspected militant Sakariya Hadsmad, who was arrested last November in connection with three 2016 attacks, including a drive-by shooting in Nong Chik that left eight civilians wounded.
The school also pays an education official who was related to suspected insurgents Maolana Samoh and Abdulstopa Sulong, Jatuporn said.
Saying the graft could stretch back decades, he said about half of the 200 religious schools in five southern provinces appeared to be involved.
A March 29 search at Prasan Wittaya Mulnithi School uncovered Bt1.2 million in cash along with documents that are being scrutinised for evidence of subsidy irregularities.
That school’s director, Muhammad Hayeeteh, has insisted that his institution of 3,500 students and 216 teachers had nothing to do with the insurgency.

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