The Supreme Administrative Court has ordered the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) to disclose all details of the findings from its investigation into the luxury watch controversy involving Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon.
In upholding an earlier Central Administrative Court ruling, the court gave the anti-graft agency 15 days to comply by turning over the material to Pongpipat Banchanont, senior editor of The Matter, a Thai-language online news agency that requested the disclosure.
Failure to disclose the information would be tantamount to being negligent in performing duties as required by law, the court said.
Gen Prawit was accused of falsely declaring his assets or concealing facts regarding a large collection of luxury watches and rings that came to light after online sleuths began studying pictures of the retired soldier at various public events.
The NACC cleared Gen Prawit of wrongdoing in December 2018, saying he had indeed borrowed 22 luxury watches from a friend, who had since died, so he did not need to declare them when he became deputy prime minister and defence minister in 2014.
The Matter first asked the NACC for documents delated to the case on Dec 27, 2018 under the Public Information Act. The anti-graft body voted 5:3 to reject the request. On Feb 28, 2020 the Central Administrative Court accepted a petition filed by the news agency against the NACC.
Mr Pongpipat said he was delighted and satisfied after hearing the court’s ruling after a four-year legal battle. He wanted the case to set a precedent for the NACC in handling future cases, particularly those involving politicians, in order to build credibility, because information disclosure is a crucial factor in combating corruption. The NACC should make matters transparent and be subject to scrutiny, he said.
Political activist Veera Somkwamkid, who also petitioned the court to ask the NACC to disclose details of the investigation into Gen Prawit’s asset declaration, said on Friday that the NACC was considered a neutral agency empowered to investigate many agencies in performing their duties.
However, he said the anti-graft agency did not look very seriously into the luxury watch controversy despite the fact that Gen Prawit had submitted all related documents.
“The NACC came up with an easy conclusion that it believed Gen Prawit’s remarks that he borrowed those watches from a friend,” said Mr Veera.
“However, no pieces of evidence were shown (to clear up public doubt). This prompted me in my capacity as a member of the public to fight for transparency for many years.
“Even though the Supreme Administrative Court ordered the NACC to give details of its investigation to me on April 22, the agency has not yet sent any documents. It defied the court’s order.”
In May the NACC said it had decided to disclose only two out of three sets of documents related to the case. The documents that would not be disclosed involved the opinions of NACC officials involved in the investigations, it said.
Mr Veera said he wanted to ask a new government how to amend laws to make the NACC a truly independent agency be scrutinised and transparent, in keeping with its motto.