Government’s legal advisers say procurement corruption case from 2012 must be resolved
PUBLISHED : 2 Jul 2024 at 18:04
The Council of State, the government’s legal advisory body, has confirmed that Charn Phuangphet, the winner of Sunday’s election for Provincial Administrative Organisation (PAO) chairman in Pathum Thani, should be suspended pending the outcome of an earlier malfeasance case.
Mr Charn, from the Pheu Thai Party, faced an investigation over irregularities in the procurement of relief supplies during the great flood in 2011, when he previously held the PAO chairmanship in Pathum Thani.
Pheu Thai, however, has argued that a new court order is required if Mr Charn is to be suspended, complaining that the council’s legal advice was at times inconsistent with the court’s final decision.
The National-Anti Corruption Commission (NACC) in 2012 found grounds to believe Mr Charn had committed malfeasance in connection with the procurement of relief supplies.
The NACC forwarded the case to the Region 1 Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases, which later that year suspended Mr Charn from work. The case is still active, with another hearing scheduled later this month.
A new court order to suspend Mr Charn is not required as the authority to suspend him from work now lies with the Department of Local Administration, said Pakorn Nilprapunt, secretary-general of the Council of State.
The chief of the Pathum Thani provincial office is allowed to serve as acting PAO chairman pending a resolution, he said.
The main reason the court suspended Mr Charn from work in 2012 was to prevent him from interfering with criminal proceedings, said Mr Pakorn.
“As such, if Mr Charn returns as the Pathum Thani PAO chairman now, he could potentially interfere with the legal process in the case,” he added.
Sorawong Thienthong, the Pheu Thai secretary-general, argued that a new court order is required because at the time Mr Charn was previously suspended from work by the court in 2012, he no longer served as the PAO chairman.
If Mr Charn is suspended this time by the Department of Local Administration, a unit of the Ministry of Interior, he could petition the Administrative Court against such an order, added Mr Sorawong.
He insisted Pheu Thai’s legal team had reviewed Mr Charn’s eligibility carefully before the party fielded him in the Pathum Thani poll, which was seen as a critical test of the party’s popularity and de facto leader Thaksin Shinawatra’s clout.
Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said that at times the legal advice of the Council of State happened to be inconsistent with court rulings, which in this regard points to the need to wait until a new court ruling is handed down.
The Pathum Thani office of the Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday insisted it had run a check on Mr Charn’s eligibility prior to Sunday’s vote, and consequently certified that he was eligible to run.
However, the final decision on whether to certify the result of Sunday’s election is to be certified now lies with the EC head office.
In another development, political activist Ruangkrai Leekitwattana said he had sent a petition to the Ministry of Interior asking it to consider suspending Mr Charn from work.