Official linked to exam cheating scandal suspended

Phetchabun municipal staffer a shareholder in company where doctored test results were found

PHETCHABUN - An official working for the Wichien Buri municipal office has been temporarily relieved from duty pending an investigation into his alleged connection with a major cheating scandal involving exams for local governments nationwide.

Provincial governor Saranyu Meethongkham on Wednesday signed the order to suspend Pichit Thangphrom, following a meeting of a committee overseeing municipal officials in the northern province.

Mr Pichit is the director of the strategy and budget office for the municipality in Wichien Buri district. He also holds stakes in Sammueang Jarernrungrueangkit Co, which officials raided on Monday in connection with the investigation into the cheating scandal.

National Anti-Corruption Commission officials and police caught 10 people, most of them public servants, in the act of correcting answer sheets of tests during the raid.

Sitters paid from 350,000 to 800,000 baht depending on the positions they were applying for to pass the tests, according to authorities. The culprits reportedly rigged the answer sheets of about 3,000 exam takers to ensure they passed.

Police found about 2,000 answer sheets that had been tampered with when they searched the company in Nonthaburi.

Pichit Thangphrom, an official in the Wichien Buri municipal office in Phetchabun, reportedly holds shares in a company where police caught people altering test papers of local government job applicants. (Photo: Wichien Buri Municipality Office)

Sunee Mangkalarattanasri, the Wichien Buri deputy mayor, said on Thursday that Mr Pichit had indicated an intention to resign but the offer has not been confirmed.

Police and anti-corruption officials do not believe Mr Pichit was the mastermind of the cheating scandal, and they doubt he could have managed it alone given the scale of the operation.

Sammueang Jarernrungrueangkit, located in Bang Yai district of Nonthaburi province, is registered as a real estate company, with Mr Pichit listed as a part-owner.

The Department of Local Administration held the exams last year in order to recruit 6,669 people for positions — many of them entry-level jobs paying around 15,000 baht a month — throughout the country. It commissioned Srinakharinwirot University to organise the tests.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who is also the interior minister, ordered the results of the tests to be nullified when he learned about the scandal.

Teeruth Supawiboonpol, the director-general of the Department of Local Administration, was transferred on Thursday to an inactive post at the ministry to pave the way for the investigation.

The scandal has also put Narucha Kosacivilize, the director-general of the Department of Provincial Administration, in the spotlight. He was in charge of the Department of Local Administration when a panel was set up two years ago to work on the tests.

Mr Narucha, a former governor of Buri Ram province, the stronghold of the governing Bhumjaithai Party, has already denied any connection with the scandal.

In his current position, Mr Narucha has been accused of sending text messages to a Line group chat of local officials, asking them to “help the blue side” — a reference to Bhumjaithai — during the campaign for the Feb 8 general election. He has also denied those allegations.