THE BANGKOK home of Education Ministry official Rojana Sinthee was searched yesterday morning as part of an investigation into the alleged embezzlement of millions of baht from the Sema Pattana Chevit scholarship fund for underprivileged children.

Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) secretary-general Korntip Daroj led a search team to the C8-level official’s house in Don Muang district at 7am.

A large number of documents from the fund were found in the house and also in her car, prompting suspicion that she might have planned to destroy them.

More than 10 files were in the back of the car, along with two plastic bags filled with torn pages of fund documents.

Rojana earlier confessed to her supervisors that she had, over the course of 10 years, embezzled Bt88 million from the fund set up to help young people at risk of being lured into the sex trade. She faces a disciplinary probe that could result in her dismissal from civil service, possibly without a pension.

Rojana allegedly transferred Bt18.8 million to other people’s bank accounts last year, which triggered the internal ministry probe that exposed the massive corruption.

The ministry found that she had since 2008 siphoned off money from the fund’s annual budget of Bt10 million-Bt30 million and sent it to 22 bank accounts belonging to relatives and acquaintances, who then transferred it back to her. As assistant to the fund’s secretary, she allegedly falsified the names of recipients for scholarships. The ministry filed a police complaint against her for embezzlement and the case was passed on to the PACC.

Yesterday search was conducted with a warrant from the Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases, Korntip said.

He said investigators would scrutinise the documents and Rojana’s computer. If further suspects were implicated, a PACC subcommittee would take action.

The subcommittee is mulling charges against Rojana including forgery, misappropriation of assets, and wrongful behaviour damaging to a state agency.

Education Ministry inspector-general Athapol Truktrong, chair of the fact-finding panel into the case, said that a retrospect probe from 2000, when the fund was established with the initial budget of Bt600 million, had found that an additional Bt30 million was unaccounted for. But the panel could not yet confirm if it were linked to corruption. As for the alleged irregularities linked to Rojana, the panel had summoned her three times to provide information but she had declined citing a health problem.

She didn’t show up to testify to the panel yesterday as previously scheduled, he said.

The panel is focusing on document evidence as they could be linked to the culprit(s), while testimonies from people are only to confirm the information, he added.

Labour Minister Pol General Adul Sangsingkeo yesterday announced that in order to prepare for the large number of migrant workers who are expected to show up in the final week of the registration deadline at the end of the month, three steps are being taken to cope with the challenge.

The three measures are: reducing the registration process; extending the opening hours of the One Stop Service (OSS) centres; and adding more registration channels.

A large crowd of migrant workers and their employers were seen queuing up at the OSS centre at the Labour Ministry yesterday to register their personal records and work permits. Many people said that they had to wait for more than six hours before the registration process began.

Adul said that currently there were around 1.7 million migrant workers who were required to register their personal records and be issued a work permit. However, as of yesterday, only 727,902 workers had gone through the process. This has caused concern that the registration of 959,571 other migrant workers may not be completed in the eight days remaining before the deadline.

The Labour Ministry started registration of migrant workers on February 5 and expected it to be completed by March 31. The procedure was aimed at letting migrant workers, who did not come to work in Thailand through a memorandum of understanding, to legally register their work permit in Thailand and get a working visa for two years.

Adul said that the delay had occurred because many employers were too lax in bringing their employees to register during the initial days of the registration period and now they were rushing to beat the deadline.

“We acknowledge that there are nearly 1 million migrant workers who have still not registered their personal records and work permit while the deadline for the registration is approaching. So, the ministry has come out with three urgent measures to ensure they can register in time,” he said.

He said that the first measure was to reduce the registration process by allowing migrant workers who already had a passport or Certificate of Identity (CI) to only report to the OSS centre to renew their visa and then they can finish the registration after March 31.

The second measure was to extend the operating hours of four OSS centres at the Labour Ministry in Bangkok, Chiang Rai, Ratchaburi, and Ranong to 24 hours starting from yesterday.

The third measure would allow the migrant workers to report to 86 local Employment Offices, in addition to 80 OSS centres around the country. The migrant workers can also register online at https://www.doe.go.th.

“I would like to ask the migrant workers who have not completed their registration to take this opportunity before the deadline, because we will not extend the registration period,” Adul said.

“Those who fail to register their permit and renew their working visa will have to leave the country, because their visa will expire and they will be charged with illegal stay in Thailand and could be fined up to Bt50,000.”

According to the government, this was the last chance for migrant workers who had previously worked illegally in the Kingdom to convert their status to legal migrant workers before the new Working of Alien Act comes into force at the end of June.

Participation in the one-hour event running from 8.30pm to 9.30pm is considered an exercise in raising awareness of climate change and the need for environmental protection.

Bangkok Metropolitan Administration recently announced that it has prepared six major landmarks to enable the lights to be turned off – the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the Grand Palace, the Temple of Dawn, the Giant Swing, the Rama 8 Bridge, and the Golden Mound.

All government buildings are asked to join with the private sector, communities and individuals in participating in the event.

This year is Bangkok’s 11th year participating.

It is estimated that the capital could save up to 1,953 megawatts of electricity – the equivalent of reducing 1,016 tonnes of CO2 emissions to the environment, representing a saving of up to Bt7,680,000.

Police have charged chartered-bus driver Krissana Juthacheun, 44, with reckless driving causing death and injuries, failing to stop to provide aid to injured passengers and having narcotic substances in his body while driving.

Krissana reportedly fled the scene right after the crash. He tested positive for drug use and confessed to having taken yaba pills during the 50-strong tour group’s trip on Monday and Tuesday to Chanthaburi, said Provincial Police Region 3 chief Pol Lt-General Damrongsak Kittiprapat. The group was returning to Kalasin at the time of the Wednesday crash.

Damrongsak joined the case’s investigators’ meeting on Friday morning at the Udomsap precinct to conclude Krissana’s interview.

Krissana sustained slight wounds on his right arm. He was spotted on Thursday wandering in the area seven kilometres from the scene and was brought into custody.

Police said he then confessed to having fled the scene for fear of being punished over so many deaths.

He said he drove the coach downhill at a “moderately high speed” – contrary to a GPS reading that the bus was moving at 80kms/hr in an area limited to 60kms/hour – and had a brake malfunction while reaching a curve and veering to the right to pass a truck.

The driver lost control of the coach and went over the one-metre-tall concrete barrier of a road island and into the oncoming lane before ploughing into roadside stalls and trees.

In recent years, several conscripts have died after being physically disciplined. The latest case was that of 19-year-old military academy cadet Pakapong Tanyakan, who died after being punished at the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School in Nakhon Nayok province last October.

Weerachai said he would try to prevent punishments that could lead to death, adding that the Armed Forces would quickly solve the problem in the case of a death, he said.

Push ups were allowed as punishment, but corporal punishment was not, he added. Supervisors who conduct banned punishments would be prosecuted under the law as well as face military discipline, he added. No one has been prosecuted for Pakapong’s death to date.

This year, about 356,000 men across the country will be obligated report for conscription, but the Armed Forces will only recruit about 100,000 for service. Conscription will be held between April 1 and 12.

Conscripts receive about Bt10,000 per month for salary as well as an additional temporary living allowance, Lt-General Kathayut Saowakon, Army director of personnel, said.

The Land Transport Department was also tasked with ensuring double-decker coaches already on the road met a good standard of safety, he added.

Prawit, in his capacity as the chairman of the Road Safety Policy Committee, made the comment prior to the start of a Friday morning meeting at the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department in Bangkok.

The meeting was to consider a master plan for road safety for 2017-2020 and discuss road safety measures for the upcoming Songkran holidays. Prawit said the authorities would implement various measures, including the seizure of vehicles driven by drunk drivers. Passengers might be allowed in the cargo beds of pickup trucks, as long as they did not sit on cargo bed’s edge and the trucks were travelling at a low speed.

Public concerns are again rising over the use of double-decker coaches after Wednesday night’s tragic crash involving one of the vehicles in Nakhon Ratchasima. The crash killed 18 people and wounded 32 others onboard the bus.

Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) secretary-general Korntip Daroj led the 7am search of the C8-level official’s house in Don Muang district.

A large number of documents from the fund were found in the house and also in her car, prompting suspicion that she might have planned to destroy them.

More than 10 files were in the back of the car, along with two plastic bags filled with torn pages of fund documents.

Rojana earlier confessed to her supervisors that she had, over the course of 10 years, embezzled Bt88 million from the fund set up to help young people at risk of being lured into the sex trade.

She faces a disciplinary probe that could result in her dismissal from the civil service, possibly without a pension.

Rojana allegedly transferred Bt18.8 million to other people’s bank accounts last year, which triggered the internal ministry probe that exposed the massive corruption.

The ministry found that she had prior to 2008 siphoned off money from the fund’s annual budget of Bt10 million-Bt30 million and sent it to 22 bank accounts owned by relatives and acquaintances, who then transferred it back to her.

As assistant to the fund’s secretary, she allegedly falsified the names of recipients for scholarships.

The ministry filed a police complaint against her for embezzlement and the case was passed on to the PACC.

Friday’s search was conducted with a warrant from the Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases, Korntip said.

He said investigators would scrutinise the documents and Rojana’s computer. If further suspects were implicated, a PACC sub-committee would take action.

The sub-committee is mulling charges against Rojana including forgery, misappropriation of assets, and wrongful behaviour damaging to a state agency.

The Phuket-based Soi Dog Foundation also called for an end to similar acts of cruelty.

A video showing dogs being poisoned has gone viral on Facebook, with more than a million views.

Soi Dog noted that poisoning is a slow and cruelly painful death. It is also unnecessary, said the group, noting figures indicating that there is no rabies epidemic in Thailand.

The foundation helps stray dogs and cats in Phuket province and other parts of Thailand.

It alleged that there appears to be a deliberate campaign by some people to whip up a mass killing of the estimated 8 million stray dogs across the country.

The foundation called on the Department of Livestock Development (DLD) to publicly state that no more dogs will be randomly killed. Dogs in areas where rabies is believed to exist should be vaccinated, sterilised and placed in quarantine, the foundation said in a press statement on Friday.

Once cleared of having the disease the animals should then be returned to build up the “herd immunity” to the disease in their territory.

There should be no repeat of last year’s actions in Pranburi, the foundation said. In that case, the dogs were impounded permanently in a large dog shelter in Buri Ram. This allowed other, unvaccinated dogs, to remain on the streets without herd immunity.

Removing vaccinated and sterilised dogs – which the group charges appears to be happening now in Hua Hin – is a counter-productive practice. It will encourage the spread of rabies as other, unvaccinated, dogs take over the area, said the foundation.

The removal of vaccinated dogs only fuels speculation that the vaccination campaign has nothing to do with rabies control but is instead an ongoing policy to stamp out stray dogs, the foundation said in the release.

No dog should be euthanised unless tests show that it is infected, said the group, and euthanasia should be humanely administered. Poisoning is not a humane approach, Soi Dog said.

“The risk is particularly high when the victims receive several or severe bites,” Professor Thiravat Hemachudha, a prominent doctor and lecturer at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Medicine, said yesterday. “In such cases, victims should be monitored for symptoms for one full year.”

He spoke after a recent dog attack in Bang Sao Thong district.

A dog bit three children, aged between two and 10 years old, on Tuesday night and a test later showed the animal was rabid. The young victims received several wounds, some being severe.

Rabies has caused widespread concern in the country lately, after many rabies-related deaths were reported earlier this year.

The situation was so worrying that the Disease Control Department director-general Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai held a teleconference meeting with provincial public-health chiefs across the country yesterday to follow up on preventative measures.

Village health volunteers have been instructed to go door to door to advise people to watch over their children, most of whom are now on school break, as they may play with dogs or cats and get bitten.

“Some people think getting bitten by their own pets may not be dangerous. But such a thought is among the common causes of rabies-related deaths,” Suwannachai said.

He also said rabies vaccines could not completely eliminate the risk of infection.

Suwannachai said his department had been trying to raise public awareness that even minor scratches from dogs could not be ignored.

“If an animal licks your wound, you also have to quickly clean the wound repeatedly with soap and water for about 10 minutes. Then, add Povidone-iodine [betadine] and go to see a doctor,” he said.

In Samut Prakan, local livestock officials vaccinated several stray dogs in the area where the rabid dog lived as an initial precaution.

Regarding news reports that suggested the Livestock Development Department might be setting up a rabies-vaccine factory, Thiravat commented that relevant authorities should carefully review such a plan.

“Rabies vaccines for animals are now widely available at a cheap price,” Thiravat said.

Asked about rabies vaccines for humans, Thiravat said Thailand had never had a factory for human vaccines before and expressed doubts about the practicality of such a plan.

Earlier this week, an investigation was announced into alleged conflict of interest in rabies vaccine purchasing linked to a former top official in the Livestock Development Department.