Alleged irregularities in the 493-million-baht budget allocated last year for underprivileged people has not only led investigators to the masterminds but also exposed extensive fraud committed by state officials.
The Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC), which is probing state welfare centres in many provinces for their roles in embezzling state assistance money intended for the poor, has uncovered various tactics some officials used to embezzle the government money.
PACC investigators have found several methods which the unscrupulous officials invented to steal the money. The methods may be different in how they were practised but all of them required tampering with official papers to enable them to siphon the money, according to PACC secretary-general Kornthip Daroj.
