Supoj Saplom, former permanent secretary of transport, is finally being punished for amassing unusual wealth.
The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions handed Supoj a 10-month jail term for failing to declare his assets, 17.5 million baht in cash, 10-baht weight of gold and a vehicle, which were seized together with other properties that the authorities found later in extended investigation. Freed on 2-million-baht bail, Supoj, 64, intends appealing against the verdict.
The assets saga emerged after burglars broke into Supoj's house in Wang Thong Lang district on the night of Nov 12, 2011, while he was at his daughter's wedding reception. Supoj told police the burglars stole five million baht in cash, but police later seized 18 million baht in cash and 10 baht-weight in gold from the suspects they arrested.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) looked into the case, because the assets discovered exceeded those he had registered with the state when taking office. The amount of assets, plus other properties, such as land deeds, also were deemed too enormous in value for someone on the state payroll to afford.
The Civil Court ruled in January 2014, that 46.14 million baht in assets should be seized from Supoj and his family for being unusually wealthy, a verdict later upheld by the Appeal court.
But nearly seven years after his assets case came to light, we are still in the dark about the perpetrators, the people or companies that had a role in helping the senior official fatten his pockets. That should not be.
Moreover, if we look back at previous corruption cases, we will see the investigations ended when the state officials or politicians who took bribes received their due punishments, while those in the private sector who gave them kickbacks were allowed to get away with their crimes.
One such case involved former health minister Rakkiat Sukthana who was convicted of bribe-taking in a huge medical supplies scam in 2003. Apart from the medical scam, Rakkiat was found to have taken a 5-million-baht bribe from a drug firm. He was later jailed and his 233.88 million baht in assets were seized from him.
Rakkiat was granted parole in 2010 after serving five years in prison. He eventually bid farewell to politics. But the drug firm and medical appliance companies involved in the 1.4-billion-baht scam were never identified or brought to justice.
It's likely that this is different from developed countries like the UK or the US. It should be noted that several graft cases involving senior Thai officers were brought to public attention only when foreign governments punished their citizens or companies that paid bribes to their Thai counterparts.
The Rolls-Royce scandal is a prime example. The notorious GT200 bomb detector case is another.
The Rolls-Royce case erupted in the wake of action by the UK Serious Fraud Office which in February this year ordered the British engineering giant to pay £671 million for paying kickbacks to land export contracts for the purchase of aircraft engines for Boeing B777-200 ERs and Airbus A340-500/600s in 2004-2005. The UK agency's move prompted the National Anti-Corruption Commission to launch a probe, putting Thai Airways International (THAI) on its investigation list.
The graftbusters have made little if any progress in the case after seven months. The hoax GT200 bomb detectors emerged in much the same manner; it was when a British court jailed a UK businessman over the fake device that we became aware of the case, which even now remains a puzzle. Without action on the part of the Serious Fraud Office and the British Court, such notorious cases would still be shrouded in mystery.
As the saying goes: It takes two to tango. Anyone involved in corruption deserves punishment.
