“This is a perfect time to promote anti-corruption as we’ve noticed that title deeds [based on corrupt practices] tend to be issued in August and September,” said the Secretary-General of the PACC, Pol Col Dutsadee Arayawut.
According to PACC investigations into various several pieces of land around the country, corruption related to the issue of title deeds often takes place in August and September, before the start of the new fiscal year on October 1, a time when government officers are looking forward to being transferred to new posts elsewhere in the country.
The PACC is currently looking at the ownership of more than 500 pieces of land totaling about 5,000 rai, mainly in Phuket, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Koh Chang in the southeast and Khao Yai in Central Thailand.
Their investigations will be expanded to cover the northeast, from which they have received many complaints about suspect title deeds.
In the case of Phuket, the PACC has received information from its local network that deeds for more than 200 pieces of land – 40 per cent of all the land parcels being investigated around the country – were issued corruptly.
“We didn’t believe at the beginning that the number would be that high,” said Col Dutsadee.
“But every time our officers come down here, they discover new pieces of land [with possibly corrupt deeds].”
Next Tuesday (August 14), the PACC plans to sign a memorandum of understanding with the various other bodies in Thailand that deal with land-related corruption, such as the Department of Special Investigations, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission to “gather more power to fight corruption”.
“We also need people power to stamp out corruption and to encourage upstanding government officers to keep their [virtue] intact,” Col Dutsadee added.
Over the past 10 months, the deeds for about 25 pieces of lands have been branded as suspect by the PACC, including land on Kathu Hill owned by a former Vice Governor of Phuket, a large parcel of land next to Freedom Beach and land in Nakalay in Kamala.
The PACC has already recommended that the Land Department revoke the deeds in the latter two cases.
Most of the deeds were issued with the collaboration of the same group of government officials.
More land deeds are still being investigated, as part of the PACC’s “Phuket Model” which aims to return subverted public land to the state.
In addition, the PACC has found another 57 rai of land on Kathu Hill suspected to have deeds obtained through corruption.
The land, with panoramic views of Patong Bay, reportedly sits in a national forest area, on 80 per cent slope – which would usually make ineligible for any kind of title.
The current “owner” of the land is suspected to be a nominee for the real owner, who, the PACC has discovered, gave two rai of the 57 to the wife of the land surveyor who made a report that the land was completely covered by plantation.
The PACC, on inspecting it, found the land was covered by thick old-growth forest.