Police raided 10 temples on Thursday to gather evidence of alleged corruption linked with four officials of the National Office of Buddhism (NOB).
The operation was carried out by the Counter Crime Division (CCD) at 10 temples across the country after the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) found records of suspicious transactions.
CCD commander Pol Maj Gen Kamol Rienracha told the Bangkok Post that four NOB officials were among those involved in the alleged scandals.
The house of an NOB official in Nakhon Pathom province was also searched and police found several bank books believed to have been used in the transactions.
The names of the officials were not disclosed.
They were informed of the investigation but not arrested, he added.
According to CCD procedure when handling corruption cases involving government officials, the unit will forward the names to the Anti-Corruption Commission to launch a probe. If the anti-graft agency finds evidence of corruption, it will direct police to formally charge and arrest them.
The anti-corruption campaign at temples began after the OAG tracked money trails between the NOB and 33 temples from 2012 to 2016, and found irregularities in 12 of them. Six temples are located in the northern region, three in northeastern provinces, two in the Central Plain and one in a southern province. The OAG estimated the suspicious transactions amounted to 6.5 million baht.
CCD police then took over the case, leading to the raids on Thursday.
The names of the 10 temples raided on Thursday have not been disclosed. But documents obtained by the Post identify all of them, including Wat Ratchaburana in Bangkok and the famous Wat Phanan Choeng in Ayutthaya province.
Corruption involving temple funds can occur after the government allocates its budget to the NOB for renovation and new projects at temples.
NOB officials then contact temple abbots to propose projects for funding, and corrupt officials may demand kickbacks in return, according to Pol Maj Gen Kamol.
"The abbot has to give them some "change" in exchange for a project at the temple," he told the Channel 33 news programme.
CCD police have not identified any abbots or monks at the targeted temples connected with the scandals, but Pol Maj Gen Kamol did not rule out that some may have colluded with corrupt officials.
"There will a second, a third and more operations for sure," he said.
There were no comments from the NOB.