The Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) is expected to demand that 217 state officials found guilty of involvement in the welfare fund embezzlement scandal be transferred while it is decided what punishment they should face.
PACC secretary-general Kornthip Daroj said Tuesday the commission's board was to forward a list of names to various organisations recommending disciplinary action be taken against them.
These civil servants will also have to be transferred from their current positions while they await punishment, Lt Col Kornthip said.
PACC member Pol Gen Jarumporn Suramanee announced on April 27 that scores of people were to be probed over their alleged involvement in irregularities in three state projects.
They were the welfare project for the underprivileged and HIV patients, a self-help community project, and a village cooperative project, he said.
Last Thursday, Lt Col Korntip revealed that the PAAC was expanding its probe into the welfare embezzlement scandal to cover 28 more organisations that altogether received 103.8 million baht in fiscal year 2017.
The 28 organisations under investigation are two operation centres for the destitute, five provincial offices to protect those in poverty, two village co-operative coordination centres, nine provincial self-help community projects and 10 highland people development centres.
On Sunday, the PACC said it had also detected possible embezzlement of welfare funds meant for blanket procurement in Sing Buri.
A PACC team found irregularities at the provincial centre for protecting the destitute, which bought 500 blankets to give away to poor elderly people in February last year, said Lt Col Korntip.
He said Tuesday, that the PACC was looking at whether more blankets given out again last December were ones left unused from the previous procurement or whether they were purchased later.
Investigators were examining the Sing Buri centre's blanket procurement contracts, he said.
The centre comes under the Department of Social Development and Welfare.
The PACC found that blankets were purchased for 200,000 baht, or 400 baht each, much more expensive than the median price of 240 baht a piece set by the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation.
Worse, the blankets were found to be of "ridiculously poor quality", Lt Col Kornthip said.
The embezzlement scandal first came to light in Khon Kaen in January.
