The resignation of an aide to the Prime Minister on suspicion of having a vested interest in the government's lottery quota system should not be the end of what is now a very public -- yet still alleged -- scandal.
Since the controversy involved his own assistant, someone publicly seen as his trusted aide and avid defender, Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha should ensure the authorities get to the bottom of what occurred.
While Seksakol Atthawong tendered his resignation as vice minister of the Prime Minister's Office on Monday, it was a show of responsibility that came a little late. It has now been more than two weeks since the leaking of an audio clip that featured a conversation between him and Jureeporn Sinthuprai, also a staff member of the PM's Office.
Both Mr Seksakol and Ms Jureeporn have admitted the recorded voices are theirs. The dialogue was brief but touched on a few controversial points that would be highly damaging if proven true.
Mr Seksakol has maintained his innocence. He said the conversation was meant as a joke and filed a police complaint against people who made the recording and leaked it online.
But the issues that appeared to be implicated in the conversation do not sound like a joke.
First, Mr Seksakol indicated that he needed to borrow 15 million baht from Ms Jureeporn to repay a man involved in lottery quotas.
According to Mr Seksakol, the man was about to be arrested by police, presumably the special task force to eradicate overpriced lotto.
If that happened, and Mr Seksakol had not returned the money, the man could expose him.
Since Mr Seksakol served as chairman of the government's sub-committee to resolve the problem of overpriced government lottery tickets before his resignation last Monday, his involvement with the man who appeared to have been engaged in illegal lottery activities could pose a conflict of interest.
That Mr Seksakol said he was keen to carry on in his role as the overpriced lotteries buster even as he'd apparently resigned from every government position made the issue even more of a concern.
The second controversy is how Mr Seksakol told Ms Jureeporn he needed to borrow the money because he had spent 100 million baht in an election, fighting against the "flour factory", according to the leaked tape.
Mr Seksakol has run in many elections since 1996. The context from the audio clip should provide enough leads for an investigation to see if an election law that caps campaign funds for each candidate at 1.5 million baht had been broken.
The Election Commission said it was in the process of determining whether there are enough grounds to launch a probe into the scandal.
Lastly, towards the end of their conversation, Ms Jureeporn asked Mr Seksakol to take care of the "lotteries" for a person from whom she would take the 15 million baht loan that Mr Seksakol requested because she did not have enough cash with her.
For now, the House committee on corruption and misconduct prevention and suppression agreed to consider a petition requesting an investigation into Mr Seksakol's alleged misconduct.
Since Gen Prayut is in charge of the special task force on overpriced lotto, the pressure is on him to shed light on the scandal so that the public can decide if it amounts to an abuse of authority or a mere laughing matter as claimed.
