PHUKET: The Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission has accepted a major Phuket corruption case that alleges extortion in the diving industry on Phuket by police.
''We will be back on Phuket to start the investigation by questioning those involved next Monday,'' PACC Deputy Secretary-General Prayong Preeyachitt told Phuketwan.
Acceptance of the case means there is a prima facie case against several officers from Chalong Police Station.
The officers were accused of demanding money from dive industry employees for not enforcing regulations that prevented them carrying equipment to and from dive boats.
Since the case was revealed last month, some of the expat instructors have resisted pressure to fold and forget the matter.
It's the first time in memory that alleged corruption on Phuket has been resisted by a group of expat victims to the point where an inverstigation has been ordered.
If the police allegedly hadn't become too greedy and tried to increase their illicit income, the rip-offs could have continued.
But the Phuket diving industry, revitalising under the Association of Thailand Underwater Sports (ATUS), which replaced the Thai Diving Association, supported the whistle-blowers and the case has continued.
Evidence will be difficult to find because the officers allegedly involved wore plain clothes and did not produce police IDs in most of the shakedowns, which took place in the Chalong pier car park or at isolated places inside Chalong Police Station.
The former superintendent of Chalong Police Station, Colonel Krittapas Detintharasorn, has been transferred elsewhere on Phuket since the furore became public knowledge.
Colonel Krittapas claims his officers said they have done nothing wrong, and that it was possible that scams by outsiders could have even taken place at Chalong Police Station because it was so open to the public.
People in the dive industry maintain the men in casual clothes who said they were police extorted amounts of up to 20,000 baht from expat workers.
Since the allegation were revealed, other dive instructors have come forward to say they were making regular monthly payments to make sure their businesses survived.
Authorities are now looking at changing the wording of the work permits for dive instructors so they can't be held to ransom for doing their jobs.
Phuketwan wants Phuket made free of corruption as a role model for all of Thailand and has suggested beginning by staffing one Phuket police station with incorruptible officers and expanding the project step by step.
''We will be back on Phuket to start the investigation by questioning those involved next Monday,'' PACC Deputy Secretary-General Prayong Preeyachitt told Phuketwan.
Acceptance of the case means there is a prima facie case against several officers from Chalong Police Station.
The officers were accused of demanding money from dive industry employees for not enforcing regulations that prevented them carrying equipment to and from dive boats.
Since the case was revealed last month, some of the expat instructors have resisted pressure to fold and forget the matter.
It's the first time in memory that alleged corruption on Phuket has been resisted by a group of expat victims to the point where an inverstigation has been ordered.
If the police allegedly hadn't become too greedy and tried to increase their illicit income, the rip-offs could have continued.
But the Phuket diving industry, revitalising under the Association of Thailand Underwater Sports (ATUS), which replaced the Thai Diving Association, supported the whistle-blowers and the case has continued.
Evidence will be difficult to find because the officers allegedly involved wore plain clothes and did not produce police IDs in most of the shakedowns, which took place in the Chalong pier car park or at isolated places inside Chalong Police Station.
The former superintendent of Chalong Police Station, Colonel Krittapas Detintharasorn, has been transferred elsewhere on Phuket since the furore became public knowledge.
Colonel Krittapas claims his officers said they have done nothing wrong, and that it was possible that scams by outsiders could have even taken place at Chalong Police Station because it was so open to the public.
People in the dive industry maintain the men in casual clothes who said they were police extorted amounts of up to 20,000 baht from expat workers.
Since the allegation were revealed, other dive instructors have come forward to say they were making regular monthly payments to make sure their businesses survived.
Authorities are now looking at changing the wording of the work permits for dive instructors so they can't be held to ransom for doing their jobs.
Phuketwan wants Phuket made free of corruption as a role model for all of Thailand and has suggested beginning by staffing one Phuket police station with incorruptible officers and expanding the project step by step.
Just audit each and every one and see who living above their income.
Posted by Tbs on April 21, 2014 08:39