Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam on Thursday said he would submit a third list of allegedly corrupt officials to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to decide their fate before the New Year holiday.
Gen Prayut will decide whether to suspend or transfer them, alongside 116 others named in previous lists and already suspended under Section 44 of the interim charter, pending corruption investigations.
Mr Wissanu said the third list of names contained 50 officials suspected of being involved in alleged irregularities in procurement and recruitment examination. Most of them were local administrators while some were officials attached to the Ministry of Education.
The highest-ranking officials on the list were at the C-10 level, or department directors-general, and C-9 covering deputy department chiefs, Mr Wissanu noted.
The third batch was compiled from lists submitted by four graft-busting agencies including the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission, the Anti-Money Laundering Office and the Office of the Auditor-General.
Officials who escape being transferred and suspended under the premier’s order will face internal reshuffles in their ministries. The suspension order is meant to prevent officials from tampering with evidence during the investigations. The lists are part of a government effort to rid the bureaucracy of corruption.