Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has ordered the revocation of the recruitment of thousands of local administrative officials admitted through a national-level examination allegedly plagued with massive cheating.
The prime minister held an urgent meeting with senior officials at Government House on Wednesday morning to discuss the exam rigging scandal.
“The permanent secretary for interior must nullify the examination although results were announced… Because the process of the examination was illegal, the announced results must be revoked,” said Mr Anutin who is also the Interior Minister.
He elaborated that the revocation of appointments would be done on a case-by-case basis for any candidates who are proven to have cheated on the exam.
He was referring to the examination that the ministry's Department of Local Administration held last year to recruit 6,669 local administrative officials.
The recruitment drive came under scrutiny after authorities arrested a group of people, mostly civil servants, in Nonthaburi on Monday while they were allegedly altering the exam results of about 3,000 attendees to ensure they got passing grades.
Police said each candidate paid between 350,000 and 800,000 baht to rig exam results so that they could obtain jobs, many of them entry-level positions paying around 15,000 baht a month.
“Those who were recruited by this means are unqualified. I reject their admission,” Prime Minister Anutin said.
“This is outrageous and ruins national development… The government officials recruited for national administration started their career with corruption.”
Mr Anutin said he had ordered a thorough investigation and punishment of all wrongdoers no matter whether they are local or central government officials.
He said a few officials of the Department of Local Administration were involved in the exam cheating and they must be transferred to inactive positions as soon as possible.
The prime minister praised the authorities who handled the investigation and arrest of the suspects on Monday, saying they had no fear of any influence but were determined to tackle wrongdoing.
The Department of Local Administration had hired Srinakharinwirot University to organise the examination on its behalf. The university is also responsible for keeping answer sheets collected from the examination. On Monday, authorities found some 3,000 answer sheets at the raided house in Nonthaburi.
The university said on Wednesday that it would form a committee to investigate the matter and was ready to cooperate with government investigators.
