Mr Paiboon, former president of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organisation (PPAO or OrBorJor), died of cancer on August 2. (See story here.)
At the time of his death Mr Paiboon was Phuket’s highest elected official, but had been suspended from office pending an investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) into the Provincial Hospital in Rassada, at the request of the Office of the Auditor General. (See story here.)
However, NACC officials in Phuket and Bangkok have declined to provide any comment to The Phuket News on the ongoing corruption probe.
“We cannot provide any details [about the investigation] to any persons other than the complainants,” said one NACC Phuket official, who declined to be named.
“All we can say is that the everything is continuing according to procedure.”
Another officer at the NACC headquarters in Bangkok, who also declined to be named, concurred.
“The only details [of investigations] that we publish on our website are of investigations that have concluded,” the officer said. “Any NACC investigations not listed on our website are still ongoing.”
Consequently, both NACC officials declined to reveal whether Mr Paiboon alone was under investigation, or whether other Phuket officials had yet to be named as implicated in the corruption scandal.