Thailand confirms removal of 3,868 officials over local exam fraud
Nirat Pongsitthaworn says only those already appointed required revocation, while more than 1,000 others were still awaiting appointment.
- Thailand's Ministry of Interior has removed 3,868 officials from their positions due to cheating in a large-scale local government examination.
- The 3,868 officials were those who had already been appointed out of a larger group of 5,925 people whose exam scores were found to have been altered.
- The nationwide removal process was completed by a deadline of August 31, 2026, to ensure a uniform standard across all provinces.
- New appointments to fill the positions vacated by the removed officials are expected to be made by the end of October 2026.
The Ministry of Interior set Monday (August 31, 2026) as the deadline for local administrative organisations (LAOs) to complete the removal of the names of officials who had cheated in the large-scale local government examination.
In the latest update, Nirat Pongsitthaworn, deputy permanent secretary for interior and acting director-general of the Department of Local Administration (DLA), reported that 5,925 people nationwide were subject to the revocation process over cheating in the local government examination.
Following meetings of the central local personnel committees, the committee responsible for competitive examinations for local government personnel sent letters to the relevant provincial committees in every province, identifying the people subject to revocation in each province.
Each provincial committee would then schedule its meeting at a convenient time.
By then, meetings had been held in almost every province.
About six provinces remained as of Monday’s deadline, with no names identified for revocation.
The total number of people whose names had to be removed could therefore be confirmed at 3,868.
Nirat explained that the total was not 5,925 because that figure represented everyone whose scores had been altered.
Detailed checks and comparisons by Nirat and his team found that 3,868 of the 5,925 had already been appointed.
More than 1,000 others were awaiting appointment, meaning no revocation was required in their cases, and they would not be called for appointment.
This, in Nirat’s assessment, fully addressed the task they had been given.
Nirat also confirmed that LAOs had completed all the revocations.
According to Nirat, Monday had been set as the deadline for submitting the names subject to revocation because the central local personnel committees wanted the revocations to take effect on the same day under a single nationwide standard.
The provincial committees that had met would sign on that date.
Nirat reported that no lawsuits had yet been filed, adding that the evidence and examination results, including both genuine and altered scores, had made the matter clear and been accepted by everyone.
Regarding possible legal action against the 146 officials who had resigned, Nirat stated that all 146 were included among the 3,868.
The DLA was currently focusing on managing the lists, according to Nirat.
Acknowledging that the department could not address every aspect at once and complete everything within a short period, he offered his apologies.
Although Nirat wanted every aspect completed at once, the case involved nearly 300,000 candidates, while questions had been raised over whether more than 1,000 people had committed offences.
In his assessment, a single working group could not complete all the work, making it necessary to address the larger group first.
Once the names subject to revocation had been removed from the list, new people would be appointed in their place by the end of October 2026, Nirat explained.
