CORRUPTION PROBES

Ministers 'won't point the finger'

AEC complains that it can't do its job if people in power remain silent

The Assets Examination Committee (AEC) is preparing to urge the government and the Council for National Security (CNS) to take action against ministers and government officers who refuse to cooperate with the AEC, the agency spokesman said yesterday.

"It is the government's absolute power to remove executives without saying what for, to ensure consistency with political policies. If executives can't work in line with the policies, the government has to change them, just as with ministers," Sak Korsaengruang said during an interview with The Nation.

Sak said the AEC would meet Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont and CNS chairman General Sonthi Boonyaratglin on Monday to inform them about problems in the AEC's work.

He said the main problem the AEC was facing was a lack of cooperation from government agencies, especially when it needed complaints filed by wronged agencies against wrongdoers unearthed by the AEC's investigation panel.

Many government officials, including ministers, are reluctant to say there were irregularities or corruption under the last government as they also held positions during the Thaksin Shinawatra administration, he said.

Making allegations against the last government would be admitting they had done wrong, he said.

"We can't be held back by the agencies' reluctance as we have only one year's term, and people are pressing us for progress," he said.

He said the government and the CNS were obliged to take action against corrupt politicians and officers in the previous government as it had been a major justification for the coup on September 19.

"The government declared its policies, a pledge to the Thai people. If it can't pursue those policies, what is it to do? If its subordinates can't pursue those policies, what is it to do with them?" he asked.

He said it was the AEC's duty to ask the government and the CNS those questions in the name of the Thai people.

According to the National Counter-Corruption Act, which the AEC's work is based on, the panel needs complaints from wronged agencies to complete its investigation before it files the cases with the attorney-general.

Sak said the panel would comply with the law as it had to make its investigation reports as complete as possible to avoid loopholes when the cases went to court.

Sak cited two of the cases: the land purchase by Thaksin's wife Khunying Pojaman and the rubber-sapling project.

The Bank of Thailand's financial-rescue arm the Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF) filed a charge against Thaksin and Pojaman over a Bt772-million land purchase, as requested by the AEC but did not specify the names of the wrongdoers as in the AEC's report.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula, former Bank of Thailand governor, had guaranteed Pojaman's land purchase was legal.

Sak said both the Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives Ministry and the Office of the Rubber Replanting Aid Fund showed reluctance to file complaints against wrongdoers, including the Thaksin Cabinet and the ministry's officers, by saying they had not been harmed, despite irregularities in last government's rubber-seedling project, claiming no payment relating to the process had been made.

However, Sak's was speaking before the Rubber Plantation Aid Fund finally filed a complaint yesterday.

"We are not telling the government and the CNS what to do, but we will give examples showing that the agencies which reshuffle their executives have more efficient and effective results," he said.

He mentioned the progress in the investigation of irregularities relating to Suvarnabhumi Airport after the change in the executive board of the Airports of Thailand, where CNS assistant secretary Saprang Kalayanamitr is now chairman.

Sak said the AEC had been exercising its full legal powers under the Anti-Money Laundering Act but he could not reveal details.

He said it would be able to use those powers to seize or freeze assets when it finished its investigations and the cases were ready to go to court.

The AEC can seize or freeze assets only temporarily. If it cannot prove the allegations in time, the suspects can ask the court to release the assets.

However, Sak expects the AEC to be able to finish its investigations into some cases and send them to the attorney-general in the next few months.

Nevertheless, the government and the CNS should have prepared a solid plan and formed an agency to deal with corruption and to prevent corruption in the future, as the AEC can only deal with corruption in the past, he said.

He said it was time the government put the fight against corruption on the national agenda.

Somroutai Sapsomboon,

Budsarakham Sinlapalavan,

Kornchanok Raksaseri

The Nation Thailand
Saturday January 27, 2007