NACC wants AMLO support in LAD exam fraud financial investigation

The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) will ask the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) to form a joint panel of specialists to investigate the Local Administration Department’s (LAD) recruitment exam scandal and the financial transactions related to suspects in the alleged fraud, estimated to involve about 4.5 billion baht in bribes paid by thousands of examinees.

More than 100,000 people sat the recruitment exam for just over 6,600 civil service vacancies at the LAD and its local administrative bodies nationwide. The exam was organised last December by Srinakharinwirot University, under a contract with the Office of the Civil Service Commission.

NACC Assistant Secretary General Pattanapong Chanpetchpool told the media today that he will seek close cooperation with the AMLO in the investigation.

He said that all the exam papers, seized from a Samut Prakan printing house, are now being kept at the NACC office pending examination, adding that there is no evidence so far that the printing house was involved in the fraud.

Meanwhile, a former dean of the Faculty of Education of Srinakharinwirot University, Associate Professor Prapansiri Susaorat, wrote in her Facebook post on Thursday that the LAD deputy director-general had not told the whole truth about the terms of reference (TOR) for the contract to hire the university to organise the examination.

She said the deputy director-general did not mention that the TOR specifies that the university must deliver the computer files to the LAD.

She questioned whether the high-security room in which the answer sheets were kept would be meaningless if there are computer files and asked why the NACC only uncovered the fraud after a raid, when examination results had already been announced in some provinces and actual employment started in April.

Prapansiri noted that those responsible for changing the scores on answer sheets are LAD officials and that university staff have no authority over the officials.

Meanwhile, the Satun Provincial Court has issued a warrant for the arrest of the mayor of Kuan Kalong sub-district administrative organisation, for alleged involvement in the exam scandal by demanding bribes from exam attendees.