Two education officials have been fired for embezzling subsidies meant for private schools in Bangkok and Narathiwat, with six others in the deep South province are under investigation for negligence of duties, says the Education Ministry.
The investigations were announced by Deputy Education Minister Kanokwan Vilawan in a virtual press conference which was attended by education permanent secretary Supat Champathong, Atthapol Truektrong, secretary-general of the Office of Private Education Commission (Opec) and other Opec executives.
According to Ms Kanokwan, the officials were expelled after Opec launched an investigation into irregularities in subsidy transfers for some 20 privately-run schools in Bangkok and Narathiwat and found almost 16 million baht unaccounted for.
Opec has been instructed to examine the disbursement of grant money to schools in other provinces and take actions, she said.
Both officers used what investigators called the "change money" tactic, in which they would transfer more state grant than what a school is entitled to, before asking the school to return the difference to their private accounts.
The officer in Bangkok authorised 78 transfers to seven private schools in Yannawa, Sathon and Klong Toey districts since the start of the 2015 academic year, and investigators detected at least 64 transfers from the schools to his private accounts.
"The damage is estimated to be over 2.6 million baht," Mr Atthapol said.
Meanwhile, the officer in Narathiwat swindled over 13.6 million baht between October 2018 and March last year, depriving 31 schools in the province of much-needed subsidies, he said. Opec has instructed its legal team to file criminal complaints against them.
Six other officials in Narathiwat are being investigated for negligence of duty in connection to the embezzlement, he said. The irregularities in Narathiwat were detected when local authorities asked Opec's auditors to check their books, while the ones found in Bangkok were detected by Opec's PSIS system, which indicated data manipulation.