DEMOCRATS IN HOT WATER

       The largest scandal ever during this Democrat-led government has forced Deputy Prime Minister Korbsak Sabhavasu to resign as board chairman of the Sufficiency Economy Office for Community Development.
       His brother, Prapote Sabhavasu, later stepped down as the office's deputy director.
       The brothers are unlikely to be the last political casualties of this scandal as an internal investigation is being conducted within the Democrat Party while the opposition Pheu Thai Party is closely examining the project for traces of irregularities.
       Mechai Viravaidya, once known as "Mr Condom" who is credited with Thailand's successful birth control, has been appointed to take over from Korbsak as the agency's board chairman. The move is viewed as an attempt to reduce pressure on the ruling Democrat Party and the coalition government it leads.
       Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, leader of the Democrat Party, appointed a working group headed by senior party figure Charoen Kanthawong to investigate the alleged irregularities and find out whether any party member had been involved.
       "VICTIM OF A SMEAR CAMPAIGN"
       In opting to resign, Korbsak explained that he was a victim of a political smear campaign. "If a politician remains the board chairman, the enemies will never stop their political attacks. So, it's better to find a person who has nothing to do with politics to assume the job. He can devote his time to doing the job," Korbsak said.
       He admitted there were irregularities in the project, which encourages communities to invest in programmes for their residents under the royal philosophy of Sufficiency Economy.
       "I can't prevent people from being corrupt. I don't think this is the only project [with the corruption problem]. My decision to quit reflects my intention that benefit should go to the project and not myself," he said.
       He did not make it clear whether the political campaign in question came from inside or outside his Democrat Party.
       Party figures have blamed junior officials in the project and coordinators from communities for the irregularities, in which expensive products offered by certain private companies were favoured to be used in community programmes.
       Charoen, who heads the Democrat working group investigating the project's irregularities, said that his panel had questioned the party figures involved with the project and the private companies offering their products for sale to the community programmes.
       "We are concluding the findings and making a report to be submitted to the party leader," he said.
       Charoen said the party figures questioned denied any irregularities, saying there were only a limited number of choices as there were only a handful of companies offering their products for sale. They said the companies had been familiar with the communities as they had come to the areas since the villages were under the SML (small, medium, large) project in the government of Thaksin Shinawatra.
       Charoen said his panel had raised questions that about the small number of competing suppliers and that the companies appeared to have inside information about funds approved to communities. "They knew even before the community leaders that funds were approved," he added.
       A source in the Democrat probe team said that traces of irregularities were found in the project, particularly in programmes involving the purchase of solar-powered water-vending machines and solar-powered street lamps for Bangkok communities.
       The opposition is also closely monitoring the project. Anudit Nakornthap, a Pheu Thai MP for Bangkok who is part of the committee scrutinising the spending of funds for the project, also pointed out there was something fishy about the purchase of solar-powered water-vending machines.
       He said the opposition was collecting evidence before referring the matter to the National Anti-Corruption Commission and other relevant state agencies.
       OPPOSITION WATCHING CLOSELY
       The opposition MP said the project's irregularities pointed to "policy corruption by the government" as the problem appeared to take place at all levels. He said the programmes that chose to buy certain products were given funding easily while those planning to use other products failed to get approval for funding.
       The term "policy corruption" was first used during the Thaksin government.
       "This practice simply makes money for the merchants and the people involved. The project does not benefit the communities as it is clear that the implementation of the project does not follow the philosophy of Sufficiency Economy," said the opposition MP.
       Before Korbsak resigned as the project's board chairman, he met Auditor-General Jaruwan Maintaka and sought an investigation by the Auditor-General's Office into the alleged irregularities.
       The resignation of Korbsak and his brother, as well as the appointment of Mechai as the new board chairman and the internal probe by the ruling party may have helped reduce some of the pressure on the government. But this scandal is likely to be a serious threat to the government's "clean" image, and could eventually hurt its stability, if it fails to find the culprits.
       THE SCANDAL AND ITS FALLOUT
       HOW THE SCAME WORKS
       When a community propess its projects to the agency, corrupt officials prepare a parallel project proposal. After the proposal is approved, the officials switch their own project for the community's project. The approved budget is for the project proposed by the corrupt officials.
       Local politicians influence the community's choice of project. Decisionmakers in the community are persuaded by the politicians to pick a project that requires products sold by a particular company. the company then offers to sell its product to the cmmunity without any competitor, which makes it easy for the company to sell at an inflated price. The project is then examined and approved by the agency's officials.
       Many project proposed by communities are identical and require products, such as fertiliser, from the same company evenn though there are other supplies offring the same product.
       THE PROGRESS REPORT
       The programme targets some 80,000 communities all oer the country. About 63,000 communiites have submittted their project proposals and the Sufficiency Economy Office for Community Development has approved 31,000 of them. those projects require funding of Bt8.4 billion, or 40 per cent of the entire programme's Bt21 billion budget.