Report of embezzlement of destitutes’ fund in six southern provinces to be ready this week

Anti-graft officials are expected to wrap up their investigating report about the embezzlement of fund for the destitute in six southern provinces for submission to the Public Section Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) by the end of this week.

Pol Lt-Col Samart Chainarong, director of the 9th regional PACC office, disclosed that the investigators had divided recipients of the fund into three groups: those who received full amount of the handouts; those who received partial amount of the handouts and those who received nothing but with the names showing that they had received the handouts.

He said officials from the 9th regional PACC officials had been dispatched to the 6 provinces namely Songkhla, Satun, Phatthalung, Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat to interview people shown on the list of the destitute who had received handouts amounting 3,000 baht each from the provincial centres for the protection of the destitute.

Their findings showed that there was corruption in every centre.

Citing the example of 20 destitute people in Klong Thom and Lumtab districts of Krabi, Pol Lt-Col Samart said each was supposed to receive 2,000 baht, but all of them were partially paid, ranging from 1,000-2,000 baht each.

One disabled woman with a disabled son whose name appeared on the list of the recipients claimed that she had never received any handout at all.