Deputy Prime Minister Chatchai Sarikulya urged the Education Ministry Tuesday to set up a probe into allegations that a professor hit a university student who exposed the embezzlement of funds at a Khon Kaen welfare centre.
Gen Chatchai vowed he would not neglect the issue, calling on the ministry to investigate whether the allegation was true.
There was no statement from Teerakiat Jareonsettasin, the Minister of Education, or either of his two deputies. Mr Teerakiat got involved in a separate tiff over corruption with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon, when he suggested Gen Prawit should resign over the wristwatch scandal.
The statement by Gen Chatchai came after Panida Yotpanya, 22, a social science student at Maha Sarakham University, and three friends working as interns at the Khon Kaen Protection for the Destitute lodged a complaint with the National Council for Peace and Order.
The student claimed she and her friends were ordered by centre director Phuangphayom Chitkhom and other senior officials to fill in forms and sign receipts for 2,000 villagers, worth nearly 7 million baht.
The welfare centre was established to help the underprivileged and HIV patients under the supervision of the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (MSDHS).
Ms Panida said when she told the professor at her faculty about the issue,she hit the whistleblower twice in the back and accused her of crying wolf.
Her professor also told her to apologise to the centre's officials by prostrating herself before them.
The Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) ordered an investigation into the issue. The probe was later expanded to cover other centres nationwide with authorities saying they are making progress.
Gen Chatchai said the commission had so far found irregularities in funds disbursement at 16 welfare centres and was in the process of examining whether 22 others were also involved in fraud.
A number of director-generals have been transferred to inactive posts after the probe found they were embroiled in the irregularities.
Gen Chatchai, however, said the PACC and MSDHS probes must be compared as the ministry had found a link to fraud at fewer centres than the commission.
In response to Gen Chatchai's comments, Sampan Rittidech, rector of the university, said an internal investigation was under way into the incident, adding the student affairs department had been instructed to offer assistance to Ms Panida.
In Khon Kaen's Chum Phae district on Tuesday, the Office of Anti-Corruption in Public Sector Area 4 questioned 84 villagers whose names were listed as recipients of funds worth 160,000 baht from the centre. The office expects to finish the inquiry, which is part of the probe into embezzlement at the centre, by the end of this week.
Pol Gen Jarumporn Suramanee, a PACC board member, said the agency is considering setting up similar panels to probe the centres in Bung Kan and Nong Khai.
Asked to comment, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha brushed aside the public's calls for the resignation of former social development and human security minister Pol Gen Adul Sangsingkeo, who is now labour minister, saying he would wait for the probe results to determine who should be held responsible for the irregularities.
