The national anti-graft agency has decided to give itself more time to investigate the luxury watches allegedly belonging to Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon after he insisted all the timepieces spotted by social media were actually owned by a friend of his.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) needs more time to investigate the issue, NACC secretary-general Worawit Sukboon said yesterday after the commissioners met to discuss progress in the probe. The new delay in reaching a conclusion on the matter follows four extensions which the NACC afforded Gen Prawit to explain where the 25 luxury watches he was seen sporting on his wrist came from.
Speculation is rife he failed to declare these items to the NACC as his assets.
Gen Prawit had responded to all four requests for an explanation and each time he insisted they were borrowed from a friend of his, according to Mr Worawit.
Previous reports have named the friend as being businessman Pattawat Suksiwong, who is now dead.
The NACC is in the process of finding out who actually owns the watches, Mr Worawit said.
The commission is checking with 13 companies, believed to have imported the watches, to seek the serial number of each watch, which will confirm who their actual owners are, he said. Three of the companies the NACC has sought information from have already responded, while the other 10 have not, he said.
Also, the NACC still has to question two more witnesses before it can conclude the investigation, which will be done as soon as possible, he said.
He did not specify who the witnesses were or how important they were in the investigation.
Mr Worawit said Gen Prawit claimed all the watches in question were borrowed from one person.
He added Pattawat's heirs were being invited in to provide the NACC with information about the watches Gen Prawit claimed to have borrowed.
Mr Worawit said the NACC had only recently found in its attempts to verify the 25 watches reported by the media that three of them were actually the same one. As a result, number of watches in question reduces to 22. As for a diamond ring, also seen worn by Gen Prawit in one picture in which he raised his hand to shield his eyes from the glaring sunlight, Mr Worawit said Gen Prawit had explained that the ring belonged to his father and was later given to him by his mother. A NACC source said the ring is found to be worth less than 200,000 baht, which means it is not required to be declared.
Gen Prawit, meanwhile, said yesterday he would comply with whatever the NACC requires him to do, when asked if he would still have to testify before the NACC in person after submitting a written explanation to all four previous requests by the NACC. "It [NACC] is doing its job. Don't worry. The [NACC's] rules are being strictly followed," he said.
