The national anti-graft watchdog has accepted for consideration a complaint against former prime minister Srettha Thavisin, his cabinet, and other senior officials, accusing them of malfeasance in office for diverting Bt35 billion from the budget originally allocated for public debt repayments to five state-owned banks to fund the “digital wallet” scheme.
The same complaint was also filed against Pornchai Thiraveja, director of the Fiscal Policy Office, and Koranin Kanchanomai, deputy director of the Budget Bureau.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), however, rejected a similar complaint against former prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and her cabinet, noting that her government had not yet taken office when the scheme was launched.
The five state-owned banks are the SME Bank, the Exim Bank, the Government Savings Bank, the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives and the Government Housing Bank.
According to the complaint, former prime minister Srettha, his Cabinet, Pornchai and Koranin allegedly breached Section 144 of the Constitution and the switching of the budget to the Central Fund, to be used to fund the scheme, was not undertaken through the parliamentary process as it should have been.
The NACC has discovered, however, that it was Srettha who ordered the Budget Bureau and the Fiscal Policy Office to instruct the five state-run banks to review their expenditure to fund the populist scheme, which was approved by the Cabinet on August 13, 2024.
