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Published on February 15, 2008

Three civilian employees, but no police officers from the Office of Police Forensic Science were involved in a corruption scam, in which relatives of dead people paid for formalin injections that were never, administered, General Police Hospital spokesman Somyos Deemak said yesterday.

He said all 21 police officers accused of the wrongdoing had no direct involvement in the paperwork process or the issuance of formalin injection bills to relatives of dead people who underwent autopsy operations. The major general said most of them were technical personnel and lab technicians who had nothing to do with the paperwork or finance process.

Somyos denied he was blindly protecting his 21.

Hospital director Lian Huiprasert has filed criminal charges of malfeasance and corruption against the 21 officers.

Somyos identified the three employees as Suphoj Bunphirom, Benjanwa Yooyong and Suphathra Phromphichai, and said warrants had been issued for their arrest.

The amount lost was Bt1,148,400, and the cheating took place between October 2004 and March 2006, according to the Auditor General's Office.

He said the employees had received Bt900 from the relatives of the dead people but pocketed Bt600 from each payment.

Not all deaths require an autopsy or formalin injections but the dead people's relatives were unaware of this.

Somyos said the investigation by the Inspectors General's office into the 21 officers' actions would begin next week, and that they would also be required to jointly repay Bt1,148,400 to the Royal Thai Police even if they are not found guilty.

OPFS commander Pol Maj General Narongsak Sewakhon said non-com officers had been assigned to do the three employees' jobs in the meantime, and could do it permanently in the long term.

The Nation