Govt panel to check on graft body

Committee member Suthin said the panel would ask the Cabinet secretary and Royal Household Bureau if the NCCC had requested royal endorsement before they took office.

The committee will check the NCCC's legitimacy, as it was set up by the Council for Democratic Reform. It will also look at whether the commission broke any law by appointing advisers and secretaries and rewarding them with pay and special allowances.

The move to check the NCCC's legitimacy has come after Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej last week accused the members of the graft-busting agency of being illegal because they had not taken an oath of allegiance before His Majesty the King. Some civic groups later filed an impeachment petition against the agency.

Meanwhile, Democrat Party assistant secretary-general Thepthai Senpong yesterday rejected reports that the party was divided after undergoing a major restructuring.

He rejected an accusation by the People Power Party that the Democrats had had to reduce the number of executive members to 19 in order to avoid dissolution.

He said the party simply made adjustments to its regulations to be in line with the Constitution.

"What we are doing is better than amending the Constitution to avoid party dissolution, or to change wrong to right," he said.