About 40 highway police officers are expected to be transferred to “inactive posts” at the operations centre of the Highways Police Division, pending the outcome of an investigation into their alleged involvement in the overloaded truck bribe sticker controversy.
Pol Maj-Gen Jaroonkiat Pankeaw, commander of the Police Counter Corruption Division, in his capacity as acting commander of Highways Police Division, told the media today (Thursday) that Pol Lt-Gen Jirabhop Bhuridej, commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, is expected to sign an order tomorrow (Friday), to transfer the commissioned and non-commissioned officers out of the division.
“It is about time that the highway police cleaned house,” said Jaroonkiat.
Atchariya Ruangrattanapong, head of the Crime Victims Assistance Club, recently filed a complaint with the police also seeking an investigation into the former highway police commander for allegedly embezzling the allowances of his subordinates.
Responding to this complaint, Jaroonkiat said that it should be investigated by anti-corruption police.
Overloaded trucks were issued with special stickers indicating that their operators had paid bribes on monthly basis to corrupt highway police officers to allow them to operate without being stopped and checked.
The amount of the bribes was estimated at several billion baht a year, while overloaded trucks have been blamed for causing extensive damage to roads and accidents.
