It has been more than five months since the luxury wristwatch scandal broke. Yet the anti-graft agency still cannot decide if Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon is unusually wealthy and concealed his assets as suspected or whether he is innocent as he has claimed.
The latest delay to the probe revealed this week will come as no surprise to the public but disgraces both Gen Prawit and the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), which has six of its nine commissioners appointed by the current regime. This unnecessary and unconvincing delay has deepened the public's mistrust in the agency's integrity and independence, and in Gen Prawit's claim.
If there is a no-confidence motion brought against them in parliament under a democratic regime, they are unlikely to survive the vote. None of them has shown a willingness to handle the case in a straightforward manner.
NACC secretary-general Worawit Sookboon said on Thursday that it is likely that the commission would not meet this month's deadline to wrap up the case. The NACC needs a few more months to verify the ownership of the 22 watches seen on Gen Prawit's wrist.
In March, the NACC already gave itself "more time" to seek the same type of information. Earlier, the agency fulfilled Gen Prawit's many requests for an extension to the deadline for him to submit information.
The reason for this delay is not convincing. It is highly dubious for the NACC to cite its own red tape for having to repeat the same process of verifying the serial number of each of the luxury wristwatches. The agency could have made all the requests for verification for all the timepieces in one go. With the high level of authority it has, it should have taken less than a week or two to get the information it needed.
Even though the total approximate 40-million-baht value of these timepieces is not high compared to the scale of ongoing corruption allegations involving other parties, the case has significant political implications.
For the country to further entrust Gen Prawit with responsibilities as the second most powerful leader, the NACC cannot afford to take more time to wrap up his case. As every day goes by, Gen Prawit continues to use his power to make key decisions, affecting tens of millions of people and the expenditure of tens of billions of baht. He needs public trust and the legitimacy to do that job.
This means his claim that the 22 timepieces were loaned to him by a friend needs to be proved.
Even if the serial numbers reveal that Gen Prawit is not the owner of the timepieces, the NACC still needs to rule whether this type of borrowing is equivalent to a holder of public office receiving valuable gifts which is prohibited by the anti-graft law.
And if the agency rules that taking valuable items on a loan basis is acceptable, then it must realise that this message will set the bar for further enforcement on this issue. It will open doors for other state officials to do the same, putting transparency among those entrusted to run public administration at risk.
This watch scandal is not a complicated case to handle as is claimed by the NACC. The sooner Gen Prawit can prove his innocence and end the speculation about his unusual wealth, the more legitimacy he will have to keep his job in both the short and long term.
With the latest delay, the public has reason to suspect that the probe could be delayed until after the poll planned for next year. By then, the military leaders need to be aware that their wish to return to power after the elections may not be fulfilled by an increasingly doubtful electorate.
With many more months added to the inquiry, the public may no longer give either the NACC and Gen Prawit the benefit of the doubt.